Rio Grande Valley – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Department of Intercollegiate Athletics announced its 2024 volleyball schedule on Thursday. Ten home matches are scheduled as part of the UTRGV Tournament, including a matchup against Texas Tech on Sept. 12.
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“We’ve got a competitive schedule,” the head coach said. Todd Lowry “The local tournament between Texas Tech and the University of San Francisco will be a great opportunity to see great volleyball in all areas. It will be really exciting to see these teams compete here in the Valley.”
UTRGV’s 2024 season will kick off with a neutral-site matchup against Charlotte as part of the Furman Invitational in Greenville, S.C., on Aug. 30. The Vaqueros will also play Furman and Charleston Southern in the season-opening tournament and will compete in the Akron-CSU co-tournament on Sept. 6 and 7, taking on Wyoming, Cleveland State and Akron in Ohio.
The home opener at UTRGV Fieldhouse will kick off the UTRGV Tournament with the Vaqueros taking on Texas Tech at 6:30pm on September 12th. Other teams participating in the UTRGV Tournament are San Francisco, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Houston Christian. Four games will be played at the UTRGV Fieldhouse on September 13th, three of which will be neutral games, before UTRGV takes on San Francisco at 6:30pm. The tournament will conclude with San Francisco taking on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a neutral game on September 14th.
UTRGV’s final non-conference games will be in El Paso as part of the UTEP Southwest Showdown, with the Vaqueros taking on host UTEP, the 2023 National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) runner-up, on Sept. 20 and Texas State on Sept. 21.
“These programs have really done great things. Texas State has always been in the NCAA Tournament and competed at the top of the conference. What UTEP has done the last few years, going to the NIVC Championship Game last year, has been great,” Lowry said. “The tournament will be here in 2025. It will be fun to have these teams here and play against each other on a regular basis. We have a four-year agreement and the tournament will be hosted by all four schools, including Corpus, on a rotating basis. This is the first time we’ve done something like this here. It speaks to the growth of our program that we have teams like this coming together and trying to put together a strong RPI tournament.”
The Vaqueros are scheduled to play 16 conference matches, eight at home and eight on the road, in their inaugural season in the Southland Conference (SLC). Their first game in SLC is scheduled for September 28th at 2pm against Stephen F. Austin at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
UTRGV will travel to face Incarnate Word and Houston Christian before returning home for three consecutive games. The inaugural South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union, kicks off a homestand against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Oct. 8 at 6:30 p.m. The Vaqueros will take on Northwestern State and Texas A&M-Commerce on Oct. 10 at 6:30 p.m. and Oct. 12 at 2 p.m., respectively, before playing road games against the same two teams from Oct. 17-19.
UTRGV will host McNeese on Oct. 24 at 12 p.m. and Nicholls on Oct. 26 at 2 p.m. before playing four straight away games at Corpus, Lamar, New Orleans and Southeastern.
The Vaqueros will face Incarnate Word at the UTRGV Fieldhouse on Nov. 14 at 6:30 p.m. and close out the regular season against Houston Christian on Nov. 16 at 2 p.m.
The Southland Conference Volleyball Championships will be held Nov. 21-24 in Hammond, Louisiana.
“The Southland is a great place for us, and having SFA back with us means the top two teams in the Western Athletic Conference from the past few years will be joined by Corpus, Houston Christian, Southeastern, McNeese and Commerce, which will take us straight to the top of a very competitive conference,” Lawrie said. “A big challenge for us this first season is seeing how the attrition of our student-athletes changes and learning how we can give ourselves the best opportunity to compete for a championship in the Southland.”
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