Volleyball Schedule released

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gocougars2005
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Volleyball Schedule released

Post by gocougars2005 »

The lovely young ladies of the volleyball team have released their 2005 schedule as they look to repeat as socon champs.

story from cofcsports:

The College of Charleston volleyball team announced its 2005 schedule on Tuesday, which features tournaments at Illinois-Chicago, Tennessee and the CofC Invitational.

The Cougars, who are coming off of a 26-6 campaign in 2004 which saw them win their second Southern Conference championship in three years, will open the season facing rival The Citadel in key back-to-back SoCon matches. On Friday, August 26th the Cougars will host the Bulldogs at 7:00pm and then travel across town to face The Citadel at McAlister Field House on Saturday at 2:00pm.

The Cougars will then travel to the UIC Invitational on the weekend of September 2-3 to face James Madison, Illinois-Chicago, Bowling Green and Denver.

"With the majority of our team returning next fall, we really tried to challenge our team with a competitive pre-season schedule,” said head coach Sherry Dunbar. “It will be nice to head back to the Midwest for our first tournament. We had such a huge following last year in Milwaukee because we have so many players from that area of the country. It almost felt like a home tournament, so we're hoping for that type of support again.”

Following the UIC Invitational, CofC will travel to Knoxville, Tenn. for the Tennessee Invitational, September 9-10. The tournament marks a return for Coach Dunbar, who was an assistant with the Volunteers from 1997-2003. The Cougars will face the host Volunteers, Baylor and Central Michigan at the tournament.

“The University of Tennessee tournament will be special as I spent 6 years there, but I'm really excited to watch our team compete at the highest level against a UT team that finished in the top-10 nationally,” said Dunbar.

The Cougars will then return home for the CofC Invitational, which will include a match against South Carolina on September 15th at 7:00pm. The match will mark the first time the Cougars and Gamecocks have met since 1996. The Cougars will also face Houston in the invitational.

“It is nice finally get South Carolina on our schedule as it will allow us to play a quality opponent in the state,” commented Dunbar. “Hopefully we will be able to continue that tradition for years to come.”

Charleston, which returns all but one player from last year’s NCAA tournament team, will also play a home and away with Coastal Carolina.

The Cougars will then move into their conference schedule, which has been modified to 18 games due to the departure of East Tennessee State from the Southern Conference. The Cougars will face all conference foes at both the Johnson Center and on the road, with the exception of Elon and UNC Greensboro. CofC will travel to Elon and host UNCG.

“Our conference is getting stronger every year and I think with this type of competition we will hopefully be prepared to battle for another SoCon Championship," said Dunbar.

The 2005 conference tournament will be held November 17-20 in Statesboro, Ga. on the campus of Georgia Southern.
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WinthropEagleFan
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Post by WinthropEagleFan »

Wonder why the Cougs and Winthrop aren't playing each other....arguably the two best programs in the state...
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VolleyBallCoug
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Post by VolleyBallCoug »

WinthropEagleFan wrote:Wonder why the Cougs and Winthrop aren't playing each other....arguably the two best programs in the state...
They have only played each other once that I can remember in the last few years and that was at the Clemson tournament. The cougs won that 3-0. Winthrop is a lot better since then.

They should play each other more but I think I know why they aren't this year. ETSU leaving the conference makes 11 teams for volleyball. We are playing everyone twice this year. There should be a true conference champion in 05. Given that and the tournaments the cougs are entered in I don't think there are any spots left in the schedule. No team is going to invite both the Cougs and the Eagles to the same tourny for fear they might get third place ;) We are not even playing our normal matches with Charleston Southern and Coastal Carolina this year. The match with Coastal after the SOCON tournament is just a tune up for the NCAA's and will most likely end up being just a scrimmage.

Hopefully we will play Winthrop in years to come, it would be a great rivalry.
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Post by WinthropEagleFan »

Yeah, I figured it is tough to get the two teams together to play each other...I'd just like to see it, and selfishly, it'd give me another chance to see WU play (assuming they played in Charleston)...I guess the two teams will just have to meet in the NCAAs...
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VolleyBallCoug
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Post by VolleyBallCoug »

I looked over the schedule again and noticed I made a mistake. The cougs are not playing all SOCON teams twice. They are not playing UNCG and Elon twice. Does anyone know how many matches teams are allowed to play in Div 1 volleyball? It seems to me the conference should have required the teams to play each other twice. This would produce a true regular season champion and no single team could be potentially screwed by having a slightly tougher schedule and not making it to the tournament. Only 8 teams are eligible for the tourny, the top 4 from each division. It seems to me that the conference had problems with this scenario in the past. Why did they go back to it? If they did something like this with men's basketball there would be a whole bunch of people crying foul.
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swampcougar1
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Post by swampcougar1 »

Not a knock on the volleyball but the fact is not enough people care to make a noise about the conference schedule in volleyball. Actually basketball schedule is not totally even. Your team could end up playing all the tough teams in the other div on their home court while another decent team in your div gets all those teams at home.
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Cougars2357
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Post by Cougars2357 »

If I read this right, the maximum number of games is 28 (to include the NCAA tournament).


17.27.7 Number of Dates of Competition—Women

17.27.7.1 Maximum Limitations—Institutional. A member institution shall limit its total playing schedule with outside competition in women’s volleyball during the institution’s women’s volleyball playing season to 28 dates of competition during the segment in which the NCAA championship
is conducted and four during another segment, except for those dates of competition excluded under Bylaw 17.27.9. (Revised: 1/10/91 effective 8/1/91)
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VolleyBallCoug
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Post by VolleyBallCoug »

swampcougar1 wrote:Not a knock on the volleyball but the fact is not enough people care to make a noise about the conference schedule in volleyball. Actually basketball schedule is not totally even. Your team could end up playing all the tough teams in the other div on their home court while another decent team in your div gets all those teams at home.
I understand the reality of the interest in sports, but if enough people were interested in the basketball schedules of all the schools in the conference there would be enough noise to get all the teams to have all D1 schedules. The reality of it all is that basketball is a social event volleyball isn't. I also understand the importance of home vs away games in basketball, but that is a small difference compared to saying a bottom dweller could potentially have to play the top two teams from the other division twice, and a top team may only have to play them once. When only 8 teams make in to the tourny that is mega important in my book. Who makes the decision on which teams are going to be fed to the dogs? In the case of the college it won't matter because we are going to be tough to beat next season.
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Cougars2357
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Post by Cougars2357 »

Social events are the best way to generate interest and funding for ANY sport! I'm for encouraging the Cougar Club to have events surrounding other sports during the year.... The pre-Volleyball game party... The pre-Soccer game picnic.... etc... etc.....

As for scheduling, the league only determines the number of games you'll play. It's up to the individual schools to work out their schedules. Besides, you can't always tell who will have an up year or a down year in conference play... no matter the sport....
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VolleyBallCoug
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Post by VolleyBallCoug »

I know the conference tells you how many games to play, but how on earth could the individual institutions say that in conference I am going to play you twice and that other guy just once. If that was the case everyone from the north division would play the citadel twice. Who breaks the tie so to speak. I am just trying to point out what I see as a major flaw in scheduling due to a team leaving the conference.
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Cougars2357
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Post by Cougars2357 »

Good question... Write Steve Shutt on the SoConSports message board...

He'll know the answer....
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