Murray State University Athletics
Challenging Tournaments Highlight Racers' 2004 Schedule
5/11/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
The Murray State volleyball team will open the 2004 season with challenging tournaments at Indiana University and UAB as a part of the Racers' 23-match schedule released on Tuesday by head coach David Schwepker.
MSU, which is looking to defend its 2003 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament title and earn another trip to the NCAA Tournament, begins 2004 against the Big Ten's Indiana Hoosiers in the first of three matches at the IU Invitational in Bloomington, Ind., on Sept. 3-4. The Racers will also play Pac-10 member Oregon State and Saint Louis in the first tournament.
Following the trip to IU, MSU will travel to Birmingham, Ala., on Sept. 10-11 for the UAB Invitational, where the Racers will play Alabama A&M, Stephen F. Austin and the host Blazers. Overall, Schwepker expects the two tournaments to serve as nice tests for MSU.
"It's a challenging schedule, with two good tournaments early on," said Schwepker, who returns all six starters from last year's team which swept all three matches en route to the OVC title. "The Indiana tournament will be a good test because we'll see some good teams from some very, very strong conferences. I think it'll be a very good gauge for us as we open the season.
"Hopefully, we can learn from that tournament, make the proper adjustments if needed, and then go to UAB for another good test."
Following the season-opening tournaments, MSU will jump into OVC play as the Racers host Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky on Sept. 24 and 25 as a part of the always demanding 16-match conference slate.
"Our goal for the two tournaments at Indiana and UAB is to prepare our team for OVC play," Schwepker said. "We want to be as prepared as we can be for every OVC match, and we hope this schedule will help us to do that."
For Schwepker and the Racers, the 2003 season was very fulfilling, but they're looking to improve on last year's first round NCAA loss to powerful Illinois through hard work and experience.
"We're very excited about 2004, but we know we can't look past anything," said Schwepker. "Our players have set some pretty lofty goals for the upcoming season, and we've worked extremely hard during the spring to prepare for this fall. Hopefully, the experience we gained from last year and the hard work this off-season will put us in a position to achieve those goals."
