VB Announces Challenging 2008 Schedule
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 | Volleyball
Winners of 17-consecutive Southeastern Conference regular-season titles, the University of Florida volleyball team announced a challenging 2008 schedule that includes seven participants in last year's NCAA Championship on Tuesday morning.
The Gators are coming off of a 29-3 campaign that saw them tie Nebraska's run of 17-straight Big 8 titles for the longest streak in NCAA Division I women's volleyball history, as well as extend the nation's longest stretch of 25-win seasons to 17 in a row. With three starters (including the libero) and eight letterwinners back from a squad that advanced to the NCAA regional semifinal for the 16th time in the last 17 years, UF's schedule will pit the Orange and Blue against western powers Long Beach State, UNLV and Colorado State, while also featuring a total of 11 matches against teams that qualified for the NCAA Championship field a year ago. UF must also contend with a 20-match conference schedule within the SEC, which sent five teams to the postseason last year.
The teams on Florida's slate for the 2008 season combined to post a 283-220 (.583) last season, while UF's non-conference foes alone piled up a 156-86 (.632) mark a year ago. The schedule includes nine teams (Colorado State. Jacksonville, Kentucky, Long Beach State, LSU, Mississippi, Pacific, UAB and UNLV) that won at least 18 matches last season.
“We feel that this schedule is loaded with many challenges, and that it's also a nice fit for our personnel,” Florida head coach Mary Wise said. “We always try to schedule competitive non-conference matches and play teams from different parts of the country. Our fans don't often get a chance to see west coast teams, but they'll get an opportunity to watch two tradition-rich programs this fall when Pacific and Long Beach State come to Gainesville. The trip to Colorado and the Thanksgiving-weekend match with UNLV will give us valuable road experience against teams from leagues that are well-represented in the NCAA Championship each year.”
The Gators open the campaign with the first of their two home tournaments, welcoming Conference USA tournament runner-up UAB and Pacific to the O'Connell Center on Aug. 29 and 30, respectively. Florida will wrap up its pre-conference home slate with its second tournament from Sept. 5-6, as they will entertain in-state foe Jacksonville on Friday and meet Long Beach State, who came within four points of knocking off eventual national semifinalist Southern California in the second round of last year's NCAA Championship, in the finale.
Prior to the start of league play, UF will make the short trip to Tallahassee to square off with Florida State on Sept. 8, before heading west for a pair of matches in the Centennial State. The Gators will visit Colorado on Sept. 11 and make the drive to Fort Collins for a tilt with 2007 Mountain West Conference regular-season champion Colorado State on Sept. 13.
Florida will play host to Georgia to kick off the SEC slate for the second year in a row, meeting the Bulldogs on Sept. 19 and capping the weekend with an important early-season clash with LSU that could provide a preliminary indication of this season's conference landscape. The 2008 campaign marks the third year of the double round-robin era, in which each of the league's teams play each other twice, for a total of 20 SEC matches, and does not engage in a conference tournament.
“The SEC is continually improving, as evidenced by the large number of schools that made the NCAA Championship field last year,” Wise said. “With all of the talent that we graduated last season and the number of top players returning in the league, winning will be a challenge each and every time out, and the race for the SEC title this season will be a close one.”
After the grueling SEC schedule, which culminates with a visit to South Carolina during the week of Thanksgiving, the Gators will head west for a matchup with UNLV on Nov. 29 to wrap up the regular season.
2008 Florida Volleyball Schedule
| Date | Opponent | Location | Time (ET) |
| Aug. 29 | UAB | Gainesville, Fla. | 7 p.m. |
| Aug. 30 | Pacific | Gainesville, Fla. | 3:30 p.m. |
| Sept. 5 | Jacksonville | Gainesville, Fla. | 7 p.m. |
| Sept. 6 | Long Beach State | Gainesville, Fla. | 3:30 p.m. |
| Sept. 8 | Florida State | Tallahassee, Fla. | TBA |
| Sept. 11 | Colorado | Boulder, Colo. | TBA |
| Sept. 13 | Colorado State | Fort Collins, Colo. | TBA |
| Sept. 19 | Georgia | Gainesville, Fla. | 7 p.m. |
| Sept. 21 | LSU | Gainesville, Fla. | 1 p.m. |
| Sept. 26 | Arkansas | Fayetteville, Ark. | 8 p.m. |
| Sept. 28 | Mississippi | Oxford, Miss. | 2 p.m. |
| Oct. 3 | Alabama | Tuscaloosa, Ala. | 8 p.m. |
| Oct. 5 | Mississippi State | Starkville, Miss. | 2 p.m. |
| Oct. 10 | Kentucky | Gainesville, Fla. | 7 p.m. |
| Oct. 12 | Tennessee | Gainesville, Fla. | 1 p.m. |
| Oct. 15 | South Carolina | Gainesville, Fla. | 7 p.m. |
| Oct. 17 | Auburn | Auburn, Ala. | 8 p.m. |
| Oct. 24 | LSU | Baton Rouge, La. | 8 p.m. |
| Oct. 26 | Georgia | Athens, Ga. | 1 p.m. |
| Oct. 31 | Mississippi | Gainesville, Fla. | 7 p.m. |
| Nov. 2 | Arkansas | Gainesville, Fla. | 1 p.m. |
| Nov. 9 | Auburn | Gainesville, Fla. | 1 p.m. |
| Nov. 14 | Tennessee | Knoxville, Tenn. | 7 p.m. |
| Nov. 16 | Kentucky | Lexington, Ky. | 1 p.m. |
| Nov. 21 | Mississippi State | Gainesville, Fla. | 7 p.m. |
| Nov. 23 | Alabama | Gainesville, Fla. | 1 p.m. |
| Nov. 26 | South Carolina | Columbia, S.C. | TBA |
| Nov. 29 | UNLV | Las Vegas, Nev. | TBA |
- UF -
