Murray State University Athletics
Racers Release 2019 Schedule
6/21/2019 2:18:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Murray State head volleyball coach David Schwepker has announced the 2019 schedule which includes four early season tournaments in Chicago and Indianapolis as well as at Troy and Big Ten power Purdue.
"I think this year's schedule will challenge us for an extremely tough OVC regular season schedule," said Schwepker. "We need to play some tough opponents, which we are, that will help us learn about the direction our team needs to take and the corrections we need to make in order to be successful in the conference. Our team will definitely be challenged this year in our conference and I want our athletes to be as prepared as they can be."
The Racers open the season on the last two days of August at the IUPUI Hampton Inn Invitational. They will open the season, August 30, against Valparaiso before playing twice on August 31 against the host Jaguars and defending Summit League Champion South Dakota.
The following weekend the Racers will travel to Troy, Alabama, taking on Chattanooga and Jacksonville, Friday, before battling the host Trojans on Saturday.
The third tournament of the season sees the Racers hit the Windy City to take part in the UIC Invitational. MSU will play just once on Friday, September 13, against Sacramento State, before taking on the Flames and Bradley on Saturday.
The final tournament takes the Racers to Purdue to compete in the Stacey Clark Classic. They will open the weekend with a match against Eastern Michigan before playing Texas A&M – Corpus Christi, Saturday morning. MSU will conclude the nonconference season against Purdue, Saturday afternoon. Interestingly, the Racers and Boilermakers' 2018 season ended the same way, falling to Kentucky in Lexington in the NCAA Tournament.
The Racers will open up OVC play the following weekend on September 27-28, traveling to Eastern Illinois and SIU Edwardsville before playing their first match of the season at Racer Arena on Friday, October 4 against UT Martin. They will conclude their home-opening weekend the next day against Southeast Missouri.
MSU will then hit the road again to compete in the Heritage Bank Battle of the Border against Austin Peay, Wednesday October 9. After traveling to Eastern Kentucky on October 12, the Racers will welcome the two schools from Nashville the following weekend, taking on Belmont on the 19th and Tennessee State on the 20th.
After playing at Jacksonville State and Tennessee Tech October 25-26, the Racers start November with two home matches SIU Edwardsville and Eastern Illinois on the 1st and 2nd. Murray State will then make the return trips to Southeast Missouri and UT Martin the following week.
The final week of the season sees the Racers return home to take on Austin Peay, November 13, before wrapping up the regular season against Morehead State.
The 2019 OVC Volleyball Tournament will be from November 21-23 at the site of the #1 seed. The Racers defeated Austin Peay in Clarksville last season for their third OVC title in five seasons.Â
