VESTAL, N.Y. - As an encore to the team's record-setting 2022 campaign, BU volleyball has toughened its list of opponents and will christen a new home facility in the 2023 season.
Second-year head coach
Allie Yaeger announced her team's schedule on Friday and it includes several exciting challenges plus a treat for home fans. In the 20th-year celebration of the building's existence, BU will play at least five home matches in the Events Center - the first volleyball matches ever held in the arena, which has previously only hosted basketball games and a handful of track meets and tennis matches.
The Bearcats will host their annual four-team Bearcat Classic on August 25-26 at the Events Center. At least two other home conference matches will be held there as well, with the remaining home matches being contested next door at the familiar West Gym.
"We always look forward to playing at home and feel that it's perfect for us to host the opening weekend at the Events Center," Yaeger said. . We love playing in front of our home crowd for the first time in the Events Center ... it will be a great experience for our players to play under the big lights and to be able to call it our home. It's a dream come true for this program. Our Events Center is such a beautiful facility and I think it will be a great atmosphere to watch good volleyball."
After the opening weekend, BU will face a gauntlet of opponents at three high-profile tournaments hosted by Buffalo (Aug. 31-Sept. 2), Lehigh (Sept. 8-9) and UConn (Sept. 15-16). Like the Bearcats, Buffalo is coming off a strong season that ended with a national tournament berth. BIG EAST member DePaul and a 17-win Montana team round out the tournament participants. At Lehigh, BU will see the host Mountain Hawks, reigning NEC champion FDU and reigning MEAC champion Delaware State.
Binghamton will play six matches against teams that advanced to national tournaments in 2022 and 10 matches against teams that won 17 or more matches last fall.
The tournament at UConn will thrust BU up against their BIG EAST hosts, Ivy League runnerup Brown and Big Ten member Michigan State.
"As we continue to take steps forward on building a championship culture we need to continue to challenge ourselves in our non-conference play," Yaeger said. "I wanted to make sure our non-conference schedule was harder than last year. I love some of the big names and great RPI teams we have scheduled. Heading to UConn for the fourth weekend will definitely let us know where we are as a team. I like making that fourth weekend the toughest one ... we will learn a lot and get the experience as a team to play in a big, historic arena like Gampel Pavilion. As the America East volleyball conference continues to get better, we too need to make sure we are taking those steps to be prepared for conference play."
The Bearcats will continue their series against Colgate (Sept. 26), the penultimate team in the Patriot League coming off a 24-win season that ended with another NCAA berth.
The 10-match conference slate begins Sept. 29 at NJIT and features home-and-home tilts against the five other America East programs. Binghamton won the regular season last fall with an 8-2 mark but right behind was UMBC (7-3), which went on to capture its third straight tournament title. Tournament runnerup UNH won 20 matches and newcomer Bryant (19 wins) gave the conference four strong teams at the top, not even counting seven-time champion UAlbany. Like last fall, BU will aim to capture the regular season crown and with it, the host role for the four-team championship, which begins November 17 or 18.
"Our goal will always be to win a regular season championship, host the tournament and continue with post season play," Yaeger said. "This America East conference continues to take strides forward and have bigger, stronger players coming into each program to make us a better volleyball conference. Our goal as a conference is for us to be a two-team NCAA conference every year. We are all doing our part to schedule tough opponents and make ourselves better. It will be a tough battle with many schools returning their entire starting lineups from last year. Every match ... every game will matter and be of importance. I know both my players and coaching staff look forward to the challenge."
