CHICAGO – Chicago State University (CSU) volleyball head coach Bob Eskew has announced today the release of its 2010 schedule. The Cougars will have 11 home matches, play in three tournaments and a 12-match slate against members of the Great West Conference in addition to hosting the second-annual Great West Conference Tournament in November.
“We have improved our schedule this year to include various teams from across the country in order to challenge our kids for the upcoming Great West Conference schedule,” said Eskew. “I feel that our kids will step up to the challenge and compete against the Great West.”
CSU begins the season in DeKalb, Ill., for the Northern Illinois Invitational on Aug. 27-28 where it will battle the host Huskies, College of Charleston, Great West foe South Dakota and former Mid-Continent Conference rival Oakland.
The Cougars continue their tournament slate on Sept. 3-4 in Madison, Wis., to compete in the Wisconsin InnTowner Invitational which also features Loyola, Duquesne and the host Badgers before opening their home schedule on Sept. 9 against Radford out of the Big South Conference. CSU heads to another Big Ten Conference school on Sept. 10-11 for the annual Michigan/Adidas Invitational here it will take on the host Wolverines along with Miami (Ohio) and Youngstown State.
The season-opening road trip continues for Chicago State with matches at Western Illinois on Sep. 14 and Indiana State on Sept. 16 before kicking off its Great West schedule at the Jacoby Dickens Center against NJIT on Sept. 18 and heads to downstate Edwardsville, Ill., to battle SIUE on Sept. 21.
CSU closes out September with GWC home contests against Houston Baptist (Sept. 23) and Texas-Pan American (Sept. 25) before traveling for a mid-week road contest at Green Bay (Sept. 30).
The month of October sees the Cougars with a four-match GWC road swing against NJIT (Oct. 2), Utah Valley (Oct. 7), Houston Baptist (Oct. 14) and Texas-Pan American (Oct. 16). CSU then finished off the month with four out of five matches against DePaul (Oct. 19), South Dakota (Oct. 21), defending GWC champion North Dakota (Oct. 23) and Butler (Oct. 28) that is sandwiched with an Oct. 26 road battle at Bradley in Peoria.
The Cougars begin October with a Great West road battle at NJIT on Oct. 3 before starting a three-match homestand versus Utah Valley (Oct. 8), Houston Baptist (Oct. 15) and Texas-Pan American (Oct. 17). A three-match road swing begins on Oct. 20 with another inter-city showdown at UIC in addition to contests at North Dakota on Oct. 23 and South Dakota on Oct. 25.
CSU starts out November with a home match against Western Illinois on Nov. 1 prior to heading to South Dakota (Nov. 4) and North Dakota (Nov. 5) in its final road contests before hosting Valparaiso (Nov. 9) and Utah Valley (Nov. 13) to close the regular season. The Cougars will host the second-annual Great West Conference Tournament at the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center on Nov. 18-20.
CSU returns six players, including three starters, from last year's team which includes senior setter Hanya Minta (Eden Prairie, MN/Eden Prairie) (Eden Prairie, Minn.) and junior outside hitter Mazvita Maziveyi (Harare, Zimbabwe/Hillside (NC)) (Durham, N.C.).
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