From our friends at AU Athletics...
American University has released its 2014 volleyball schedule, which includes four regular season tournaments and features four NCAA Tournament qualifiers from last season, including the 2013 National Champion Penn State.
American will kick-off its 2014 campaign on Friday, August 29 with the D.C. Volleyball Challenge, taking on Georgetown in Bender Arena at 7:30 p.m. for the eighth annual "Bender Blue Out." American has set new Washington, D.C. collegiate volleyball attendance records five times in the past seven years at the "Bender Blue Out" and has had over 2,000 fans attend the event in each of the last four years. The Eagles will then travel to Fairfax, Va. on Saturday, August 30 to take on Howard at 11 a.m. and George Mason at 7 p.m. to close out the tournament.
American will host Metropolitan University of Puerto Rico for an exhibition game on Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. before welcoming Marquette and Florida State to Bender Arena for the American Volleyball Classic. The Eagles face Marquette first on Friday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. and take on Florida State on Sunday, Sept. 7 at 11 a.m., with the Golden Eagles and Seminoles playing Saturday, Sept. 6 at 1 p.m.
The Eagles will take to the road for back-to-back tournaments, the Villanova Classic (Sept. 12-13) and Rutgers Tournament (Sept. 19-20). American will take on Penn State, Kansas and Villanova at the Villanova Classic, facing Princeton, Rutgers and Akron at the Rutgers Tournament the following weekend.
American kicks off its Patriot League slate at home as the Eagles open its run towards its 12th Patriot League Championship after reclaiming the conference title in 2013. American will face Bucknell on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. and Lafayette on Saturday, Sept. 27 at 4 p.m. in Bender Arena. Other home conference match-ups for American include Lehigh (Oct. 10, 7 p.m.), Colgate (Oct. 11, 2 p.m.), Navy (Oct. 17, 7 p.m.), Loyola (Oct. 22, 7 p.m.), Holy Cross (Nov. 7, 7 p.m.) and Army (Nov. 8, 4 p.m.).
American will look to reclaim the conference championship for the second straight year at the 2014 Patriot League Tournament on November 22 and 23 at the home site of the highest seed. The NCAA Tournament begins Friday, December 5 with this year's Final Four being held at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Okla. on December 18 and 20.
Click here for a downloadable version of the schedule.
