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Thursday, June 29, 2017

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS

HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily

The Michigan volleyball team will play 15 games this season against teams that qualified for last year’s NCAA Tournament.

Michigan releases its 2017 volleyball schedule

Wednesday, 
the 
Michigan 

volleyball team released its full 
schedule for the 2017 season. 
The 
32-game 
slate 
includes 

15 
matches 
against 
teams 

that qualified for the NCAA 
Tournament last season, and 22 
games against teams that ranked 
in the Top 70 in RPI.

While the Wolverines opened 

last 
season 
in 

the 
friendly 

confines of Cliff 
Keen Arena for 
the 
Michigan 

Invitational, 
this year will be 
very 
different. 

Michigan 
will 

travel 
to 
Los 

Angeles 
for 

the 
USC/LMU 

Tournament 
August 
25-26 
for 
matches 

against 
Albany, 
USC 
and 

Loyola Marymount to begin its 
campaign. 

The 
season-opening 
trip 

to the West Coast is almost 
triple 
the 
distance 
of 
the 

Wolverines’ longest road trip 
last season, which took them 
to Manhattan, Kan. for the 
K-State Invitational.

Following the West Coast 

swing, 
Michigan 
will 
open 

its home slate against Butler 
on Sept. 1 in the Michigan 
Invitational. 
The 
Wolverines 

will continue the invitational 
with 
games 
against 
New 

Hampshire 
and 
Wisconsin-

Green 
Bay 
the 

next day.

Michigan’s 

third tournament 
of 
the 
season 

involves another 
challenging 
Western 
road 

trip. 
From 

Sept. 
8-10, 
the 

Wolverines 
will 

compete in the 
Colorado 
State 

Invitational against Idaho State, 
Colorado State and Ball State.

Just as it did last season, 

Michigan will host its final 
regular-season 
tournament 

— the Michigan Challenge — 
on the fourth weekend of the 
season. The Wolverines’ three 
opponents 
in 
the 
challenge 

are 
North 
Carolina 
State, 

Wisconsin-Milwaukee 
and 

Cincinnati.

Highlighting 
the 
non-

conference 
portion 
of 
the 

schedule are NCAA Tournament 
teams USC, New Hampshire and 
Colorado State.

Michigan will hope for similar 

success in non-conference action 
as it experienced last season, 
when the Wolverines went 11-1. 
These early triumphs will be 
necessary, as the Big Ten is 
possibly the most challenging 
conference in the country — last 
season, the conference ranked 
first in RPI and sent eight teams 
to 
the 
NCAA 
Tournament, 

including the top three overall 
seeds: Nebraska, Minnesota and 
Wisconsin.

The 20-game Big Ten slate 

doesn’t 
figure 
to 
get 
any 

easier in 2017. Michigan’s first 
two conference games are at 
Minnesota and at Wisconsin 
on Sept. 22 and 23. Ten of the 

Wolverines’ first 12 conference 
games are against teams who 
finished 
last 
season 
with 

winning records 
as well.

One 
notable 

feature 
of 

Michigan’s 
schedule 
is 

the 
lengthy 

home 
stretches 

relative 
to 
last 

season. In 2016, 
the 
Wolverines 

had 
only 
one 

stretch of three 
straight games at Cliff Keen 
Arena. 
However, 
Michigan 

will have two such stretches 
this year, including a four-
game string from Nov. 10-18 
against Northwestern, Illinois, 
Michigan State and Purdue.

Michigan’s 
first 
two 

conference home games will be 
against Ohio State and Maryland 
on Sept. 29-30. Aside from 
the four-game home stand in 
November, the Wolverines will 
also take on Minnesota, Iowa, 
Nebraska and Rutgers at Cliff 
Keen Arena.

After the conference openers 

on the road, Michigan will 
travel next to Iowa on Oct. 4. 

the 
Wolverines 

will also go on 
the 
road 
from 

Oct. 13-21 for four 
straight 
games 

against 
Rutgers, 

Penn 
State, 

Michigan 
State 

and Ohio State, a 
streak the length 
of which was not 
seen last season. 
Michigan’s three 

road games in November are 
against Illinois, Indiana and 
Purdue, the latter two finishing 
the Wolverines’ regular-season 
schedule.

Last 
season, 
Michigan 

survived Big Ten play with 
an 11-9 conference record. If 
the Wolverines do the same 
this season and finish at least 
.500, they should be in good 
shape to qualify for the NCAA 
Tournament 
for 
the 
third 

straight season, and the 16th 
time in 19 seasons under head 
coach Mark Rosen.

JACOB SHAMES

Summer Managing Sports Editor

The Big Ten 
slate again 
figures to be 
challenging.

One notable 
feature is the 
lengthy home 

stretches. 

