COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The start of the Texas A&M volleyball season is less than a month away as the Aggies open the 2012 campaign by hosting the Texas A&M Invitational, August 26-27, at Reed Arena.
The season-opening home tournament and an overall 13-match home slate, including an exhibition match against the Israel national team, highlight the 2011 schedule. The Aggies also will compete in tournaments hosted by Portland, Stephen F. Austin and Michigan, in addition to playing 16 Big 12 Conference matches.
A&M is slated to play 29 regular-season matches overall, 13 of which will be against teams that appeared in the 2010 NCAA Championship tournament, including six matches against schools that advanced to at least the third round (Sweet 16).
The complete 2011 A&M volleyball schedule is available at AggieAthletics.com. Season tickets are only $100 and are available for purchase also on the A&M website. Individual match tickets go on sale soon.
The Aggies, who return 14 of 15 letterwinners - including all six starters and the libero - from last year's 7-13 squad, begin the season by welcoming NCAA tournament participants UTSA and Creighton to the Texas A&M Invitational. There will be a total of three matches played on Friday, Aug. 26, with the Roadrunners and Bluejays opening at 9:30 a.m. The Aggies make their season debut at 2:30 p.m. against Creighton, which reached the second round of NCAAs after upsetting heavily favored and Big 12 member Iowa State in the first round.
A&M returns to the court Friday evening at 7:30 to take on UTSA, the defending Southland Conference tournament champion. The Aggies conclude the tournament on Saturday with a rematch against Creighton at 12:30 p.m.
"We are eager and excited to get on the court and premiere our volleyball season at Reed Arena with some very important matches," A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said. "We hopefully will play a lot of different players and see some different looks on the court with our veteran squad.
"It is going to be a very meaningful opening weekend in terms of our goals as well as the importance placed on non-conference matches (by the NCAA Selection Committee)."
On August 30, the Aggies will play a friendly match against the Israel national team at Reed Arena. Corbelli will be going up against her former coach from the silver medal-winning 1984 USA Olympic Team, Arie Selinger, who is widely regarded of one of the greatest volleyball coaches of all time.
The Aggies then hit the road for three tournaments in which they will play a total of nine matches. A&M faces Portland, Butler, Nevada and Washington State at the Portland Nike Invitational on Sept. 1-3 and then travels to Nacogdoches, Sept. 9-10, for the Ladyjack Invitational, where the Aggies take on Stephen F. Austin and Northern Illinois.
A&M concludes its non-conference road schedule against Xavier, Toledo and Michigan, Sept. 16-17, at the Michigan/adidas Invitational in Ann Arbor, Mich.,
"I really like that we are playing so many different conferences," Corbelli said. "Xavier and Toledo are both very strong in their respective conferences, and Michigan is in one of the toughest conferences in the country. It will be a huge challenge for us, and it will give us a great look at where we are going into the Big 12. That whole weekend will mimic many of our Big 12 matches."
The Aggies play their final non-conference match of the regular season Sept. 21 at Reed against Houston Baptist, where A&M first-year assistant Steve Greene previously coached and helped the Huskies secure what they could tab the best recruiting class in school history.
"Our preconference is a great build-up for Big 12 play; the things that coaches want to discover in the pre-conference before they get into league play, what system is going to work best.," Corbelli said. "We have three options at setter, and we have six options at outside hitter. We have five options for defensive specialist/libero. The position we don't have as many options is middle blocker, but we will be looking at different lineups to see what groups are going to mesh. The buildup to the Big 12 is exactly what we need."
A&M begins Big 12 play on Sept. 24 at Missouri, which reached the Sweet 16 in 2010, and then opens the home conference slate on Sept. 28 against Baylor.
With the departure of Colorado and Nebraska, conference teams will have four fewer league matches, something Corbelli looks forward to.
"The extra byes will allow for some great training time, which was a big point of contention when we went from a Friday-Saturday to the Wednesday-Saturday format," Corbelli said. "We'll have more time to heal any injuries and more time to tweak different things within our offensive and defensive systems and our lineups. It will give opportunity to younger players who are starting to blossom to be tried out on the first team. It is just going to be something we haven't had the luxury to play around with in the past, and I am really looking forward to it."
The home edition of the State Farm Lone Star Showdown against rival Texas, who A&M swept last year at Reed Arena, is Nov. 23. The match against the Longhorns, who advanced to the NCAA semifinals in 2010, is the third of a grueling four-match season-ending stretch, which includes a home match against Sweet 16-team Missouri on Nov. 12 and a road match at Sweet 16-participant Oklahoma on Nov. 19. The Aggies conclude the regular season on Nov. 26 at Iowa State, which joined Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri in the final Top 25 poll.
The 2011 NCAA Championship tournament first and second rounds will be Dec. 1-4 at campus sites. Regionals will be held Dec. 9-10 at Gainesville, Fla., Honolulu, Lexington, Ken., and Minneapolis. The semifinals and championship match will be played at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Dec. 15 and 17, respectively.
The Aggies report to campus the evening of Monday, Aug. 8 and begin preseason workouts on Tuesday, Aug. 9.