Big 12 Releases 2017 Women’s Volleyball Schedule

The Big 12 Conference has released its volleyball schedule for the 2017 women’s indoor season, with play beginning on Wednesday, September 20th.

The 20-week schedule will run through Saturday, November 25th, with matches playing on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There will be one Thursday game – between West Virginia and TCU on October 25th.

Teams will play a double round-robin schedule, meaning that each team will have 16 conference games (9 teams, 8 opponents each, two games against each opponent). The Big 12 is the only “Power Five” conference where each member team plays each other member team twice every year in a home-and-home – due mostly to having fewer schools that sponsor volleyball than the other big conferences. There are 10 members in the Big 12, and Oklahoma State doesn’t sponsor volleyball.

The two big highlighted showdowns will be the two games between Kansas, who last year won their first-ever Big 12 title; and Texas, the defending NCAA runners-up. The first will come on October 11th, when the Jayhawks host the Longhorns in Lawrence. They’ll make the return trip on November 15th at the Gregory Gymnasium in Austin.

The teams split 1-1 last season, with the loss in Austin being the Jayhawks’ only conference defeat last season.

Kansas has the defending Big 12 Coach of the year (Ray Bechard), Player of the Year (Kelsie Payne), Libero of the Year (Cassie Wait), and Setter of the Year (Ainise Havili) on their roster. Texas, meanwhile, has the defending Freshman of the Year (Micaya White) on theirs, along with one of the most formidable blocks in the country, including the return of All-American Chiaka Ogbogu. The Longhorns also bring in 3 of the top 6 freshmen in the country.

Among other highlights will be the October 7th game between Baylor and West Virginia. That matchup will feature two of the best hitters in the country: Baylor’s Katie Steiger, who as a junior last season ranked 4th nationally with 5.45 kills/set; and West Virginia’s Payton Caffrey, who was the highest-scoring freshman in the country last season with 4.44 kills/set.

The composite schedule, courtesy of the Big 12, is below: