After just missing out on the NCAA Tournament and finishing the season ranked fifth in the country, the UC Irvine Men’s volleyball team has their path laid out on their journey to crack the big dance. They’ll also be doing it in a new conference, as they join the inaugural men’s volleyball conference in the Big West.
The schedule should be extremely challenging for UC Irvine as they look to best last season’s 20-7 record. In total, they will play in 19 matches just over the course of the regular season against teams who were ranked to end 2017.
Right out of the gates, UC Irvine heavily challenges itself with five consecutive matches coming against teams who ended the 2017 season ranked. Additionally, all five occur over a 10 day span starting on January 5 against Lewis (7) and continuing over the span with Loyola-Chicago (14), UCLA (6), USC (11) and Pepperdine (8).
The following four matches won’t be as tough, as it will be an opportunity to improve on what they learn in the first five and get ready for the next stretch of difficult matches. That begins on January 26 when the Anteaters play host to 2017’s National Runner-Up in BYU (2) on back-to-back days. Meetings with Stanford (9) and another with UCLA are interrupted by the alumni match on February 10. A second match with Pepperdine follows that.
February 23 kicks off Big West action, with UC Irvine traveling to Hawaii (4) for a pair of matches. It’s just a quick taste of conference action before taking on four non-conference opponents, including Ball State (12) and another go around with Stanford.
On March 15 they get back to Big West play with eight of their final nine matches coming against other conference opponents. That means two against UC San Diego, Long Beach State (3), CSUN (15) and UC Santa Barbara (RV) with the lone out of conference match coming against USC. Senior night will be on April 14 against UC Santa Barbara.
The Big West Championship takes place from April 19-21 in Long Beach, California, which will provide an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Those NCAA Championships will occur from April 28 to May 5.
The full schedule in its entirety can be seen below:
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JAN 5 (FRI) 3:30 PM
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JAN 6 (SAT) 3:30 PM
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JAN 10 (WED) 7:00 PMAT UCLA
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JAN 12 (FRI) 7:00 PMVS USC
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JAN 14 (SUN) 3:00 PMAT PEPPERDINE
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JAN 19 (FRI) 6 PM
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JAN 20 (SAT) 11:00 AMVS BENEDICTINE
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JAN 20 (SAT) 6:00 PM
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JAN 24 (WED) 7:00 PMAT CONCORDIA
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JAN 26 (FRI) 7:00 PMVS BYU
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JAN 27 (SAT) 7:00 PMVS BYU
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FEB 2 (FRI) 7:00 PMVS STANFORD
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FEB 3 (SAT) 7:00 PMVS UCLA
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FEB 10 (SAT) 4:00 PMVS ALUMNI
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FEB 14 (WED) 7 PMVS PEPPERDINE
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FEB 23 (FRI) 7:00 PMAT HAWAI’I
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FEB 25 (SUN) 5:00 PMAT HAWAI’I
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MAR 7 (WED) 7:00 PMVS FORT WAYNE
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MAR 8 (THU) 7:00 PMVS BALL STATE
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MAR 10 (SAT) 5:00 PMAT STANFORD
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MAR 13 (TUE) 7:00 PMVS GEORGE MASON
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MAR 15 (THU) 7:00 PMVS UCSD
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MAR 16 (FRI) 7:00 PMAT UCSD
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MAR 24 (SAT) TBAAT USC
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MAR 30 (FRI) 7:00 PMBIG WEST AT LONG BEACH STATE
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MAR 31 (SAT) 7:00 PMBIG WEST VS LONG BEACH STATE
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APR 6 (FRI) 7:00 PMBIG WEST VS CSUN
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APR 7 (SAT) 7:00 PMBIG WEST AT CSUN
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APR 12 (THU) 7:00 PM
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APR 14 (SAT) 7:00 PM
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