The UCSB women’s volleyball team, fresh off a 22-win season and a return to the NCAA Tournament, released its fall 2010 schedule on Wednesday.
The Gauchos, who will be led by All-American Dana Vargas and All-Big West First Team player Stacey Schmidt, will face five non-conference teams which made the NCAA Tournament last year as well as an always-challenging Big West Conference schedule that includes 2009 NCAA Tournament participant Long Beach State.
“We tried to get a good preseason schedule with teams that have usually go to the NCAA’s or who have been there recently to help prepare the team to start league,” said UCSB head coach Kathy Gregory, who was the Big West’s Co-Coach of the Year last season.
UCSB will open the season at the Cal Berkeley Tournament on Aug. 27-28 and then open its home season on Monday, August 30 vs. Cincinnati. Cal was the No. 9 seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament while Cincinnati made it to the tournament for the second straight season.
Then the Gauchos will play in three straight tournaments away from home through September with matches against NCAA Tournament teams Washington State, New Mexico and Minnesota. In that stretch UCSB will also play Tulsa, a 26-match winner last season, and the University of San Diego, which has made 13 NCAA appearances and was ranked No. 15 when UCSB beat the Toreros on consecutive nights last season.
After the Cincinnati match, the Gauchos will host eight more home matches – all Big West Conference matches – in October and November. Last season’s league champ, Long Beach State, will play at the Thudnerdome on Oct. 1 and UC Irvine, which was nationally-ranked when the Gauchos beat them twice last season, will come to Santa Barbara on Oct. 22.
