MOBILE, Ala. – The 2018 University of South Alabama volleyball schedule features matches with two Southeastern Conference schools, three C-USA opponents and one Big Ten school, as announced Tuesday by head coach Amy Hendrichovsky.
The Jaguars will compete in an exhibition match at Florida State on Fri., Aug. 17 at 6 p.m. before kicking off the season at the Dayton Invitational (Aug. 24-25) in Dayton, Ohio, beginning with the season opener against Ball State. USA will close the tournament the following day with matches against Marshall and Dayton.
South Alabama will face Tulane on Aug. 30 in Atlanta to open the Hyatt Regency Georgia Tech Tournament, followed by a match with Wofford that afternoon. The Jags will close the tournament against host Georgia Tech on Aug. 31.
USA will host the Jaguar Invitational (Sept. 7-8), with matches against Southeastern Louisiana, Mississippi State and Louisiana Tech, before hosting Alabama State (Sept. 11) in midweek action.
The Jags then travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to compete in the Alabama Crimson-White Tournament (Sept. 14-15), which will kick off with USA taking on Alabama Friday morning, followed by an afternoon match with Southern Miss, before closing the tournament and the non-conference schedule with a match with Purdue on Saturday.
South Alabama will open Sun Belt Conference play at Little Rock (Sept. 21), followed by a match at Arkansas State (Sept. 23) to close the weekend. The Jags host Georgia Southern (Sept. 28) in their SBC home opener, and will take on Georgia State (Sept. 29) the following day.
USA then kicks off a four-game road swing with matches at ULM (Oct. 5) and Louisiana (Oct. 6), followed by contests at Georgia State (Oct. 12) and Georgia Southern (Oct. 13).
The Jags host Texas State (Oct. 19) and UTA (Oct. 20) before taking on a three-game road swing with matches at Appalachian State (Oct. 26), Coastal Carolina (Oct. 28) and a midweek contest at Troy (Oct. 31).
USA will close the regular season with three consecutive home matches: Troy (Nov. 3), Coastal Carolina (Nov. 9) and Appalachian State (Nov. 11).
The SBC Tournament will be held Nov. 15-18 in Atlanta.
"During the 2017 preseason, our team accepted the challenge of playing tough competition," Hendrichovsky said. "It forced us to execute efficiently and consistently in the preseason, and helped propel us to the best conference record in program history. Knowing we return a large portion of the team, I felt scheduling another challenging preseason in 2018 would again help prepare us to be successful for the 2018 conference season.
"We have four solid preseason tournaments, and there will not be one weekend where we will be able to relax which is similar to our conference schedule. If our team can embrace controlling what we control and improving slightly each week, then we will be a force at the end of the season."
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with USAJaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at Twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
Join the South Circle, the unrestricted giving option of the University of South Alabama Athletics. Contributions to South Circle directly support all 17 sports in addition to various support programming. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/give.
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2018 South Alabama Volleyball Promotional Schedule
Sept. 7 (SLU) - Jaguar Invitational (free donuts)
Sept. 7 (Miss State) - Jaguar Invitational (autographed schedule poster giveaway)
Sept. 8 - Jaguar Invitational (magnet schedule giveaway)
Sept. 11 - Alabama State (Jaguar key chain and koozie giveaway)
Sept. 28 - Georgia Southern (Camper Reunion Night - Jaguar car decal giveaway)
Sept. 29 - Georgia State (mini volleyball giveaway)
Oct. 19 - Texas State (Dig Pink Game to support Breast Cancer Awareness)
Oct. 20 - UTA (SAAC Night)
Nov. 3 - Troy (#BeatTroy T-shirt giveaway/Greek Night)
Nov. 9 - Coastal Carolina (Alumni Weekend)
Nov. 11 - App State (Senior Day)
