BLACKSBURG – Following the second year of the Jill Wilson era, the Virginia Tech volleyball coach announced the 2019 schedule on Thursday, highlighted by five NCAA Tournament teams and 13 home matches, which includes an exhibition.
Of the Hokies' 26 opponents, 19 mustered winnings seasons, 11 finished in the top 80 of the RPI and three collected 20 or more wins last fall.
Beginning the year at home, Tech will take on JMU in an exhibition on Aug. 23 at Carilion Clinic Court at Cassell Coliseum. A solid tune-up, the Dukes went 22-7 and finished No. 57 in the RPI in 2018.
Opening weekend for the Hokies will be from Aug. 30-31, when they hit the road for Oxford, Ohio, taking on MAC regular-season champion Miami (Ohio), Big Ten foe Northwestern and USC Upstate.
The following weekend, Sept. 6-7, Tech will stay in state and go east, traveling to Lynchburg to play Liberty, Elon and Davidson. It will travel once again in state for its next match, playing A-10 regular-season champion VCU on Sept. 10.
Hitting the road for the third straight weekend, Tech will fly to Colorado Springs to play versus Air Force, Loyola Chicago and UC Irvine.
And for its final nonconference weekend, the Hokies will play host to Charlotte, which it played last year and won in a five-set thriller in the Queen City, Arkansas State and Chattanooga in the Hokie Invitational sponsored by the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Christiansburg.
A challenging conference schedule once again presents itself for the Hokies, starting with four straight road matches to kick off ACC play. It gets started with nothing bigger than the Commonwealth Clash presented by Virginia529, as Tech will go to Charlottesville to play Virginia before playing Pitt, NC State and North Carolina.
The Hokies will then host four in a row, playing host to Clemson, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame and Louisville. A quick stop in the Tar Heel State to play Duke and Wake Forest impedes another two home matches against Florida State and Miami (Fla.).
A Northeast swing in November to play Boston College and Syracuse followed by a trip to Clemson marks Tech's final road swing before playing host to Virginia the day before Thanksgiving and North Carolina the day after on Friday, Nov. 29.
