George Mason didn’t have quite the season they hoped for last year in going 13-14 and 6-8 in EIVA action. They were unable to make the conference tournament, but look prime for a breakout 2018 season as they are receiving votes in the preseason coaches poll. In preparation for an opportunity at an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, George Mason will face a loaded non-conference schedule to get ready for EIVA matches.
The schedule kicks off on January 5 against Limestone College with two more weekend matches – both against #15 Grand Canyon – on the slate. That starts a streak of four consecutive matches vs. preseason ranked foes, with road tests at #13 Loyola-Chicago and #6 Lewis the following week.
The end of January and beginning of February holds difficult contests too, with #10 Pepperdine (Jan. 26), #14 Ball State (Jan. 28), two-time defending National Champion and top-ranked Ohio State (Feb. 3) and #2 Long Beach State (Feb. 10) looming.
That strong non-conference portion of the schedule should prepare them well for EIVA play, with two matches coming against everyone in the conference. The most stern task will come against #9 Penn State with NJIT, (RV) Princeton, Saint Francis, Sacred Heart, University of Charleston and Harvard rounding things out.
After their first run through of teams though (with the exception of Sacred Heart, who they play twice, and Charleston and Harvard, who they won’t have played yet), George Mason is interrupted by another stretch of out of conference battles. They’ll take a trip to California in early March to take on #11 CSUN, #4 UCLA and #7 UC Irvine.
It’s back to EIVA action after that, with the last four regular season matches coming in Fairfax, Virginia. The finale and senior night comes on April 14 against Harvard.
The EIVA Tournament, which takes the top four teams and pits them in a semifinal round, begins on April 19 and concludes two days later. That will push someone into the NCAA Tournament the week after that.
The full George Mason schedule in its entirety can be seen here via the school’s athletic page.
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