11
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.