Courtesy: Arizona Athletics
Arizona Sand Volleyball Announces 2016 Schedule
TUCSON, Ariz. – Head coach Steve Walker and the Arizona sand volleyball program has announced its inaugural 2016 schedule. This will be the first-ever year Arizona Sand Volleyball is recognized as an NCAA Championship sport. The Wildcats will host four events at the Sand Volleyball Courts at Jimenez Field.
The first chance for fans to see the 2016 Cats will be on Saturday, Feb. 27 for the Red-Blue Exhibition.
"With this being the first season the sport of beach volleyball will be contested as an NCAA Championship sport, we wanted to give ourselves every opportunity to be selected to the championships by playing a highly competitive schedule vs. many of the best teams in the country", said Head coach Steve Walker.
Arizona will officially open the 2016 season by competing against Colorado Mesa on March 3, to then go on and host the Arizona Invitational on March 4-5.
The Wildcats will have TCU, Cal Poly, Cal and LMU in for the two-day event. UA will open the season against Colorado Mesa on Thursday, March 3 at 4 p.m. In the Arizona Invitational the following day, the Cats will face TCU at 2 p.m., LMU at 11 a.m. and Cal on Saturday at 6 p.m., before closing the tournament.
UA will then head to the coast to compete against Concordia University in Irvine, Calif. on Friday, March 11 at 11 a.m. The following day Sand Cats will take on UCLA in Los Angeles, Calif. on Saturday, March 12 at 10 a.m.
Arizona will then host the Wildcat Spring Challenge on March 25-26. The Cats will host New Mexico, Arizona State, CSUN and CSU-Bakersfield in the event. UA will play three times on the weekend, as it will face CSU-Bakersfield at 2 p.m. and New Mexico at 3:30 p.m. on Friday and CSUN on Saturday at noon.
"We are once again very happy to announce we have multiple home events at BearDown Beach, spread out through the course of the season. We love playing in front of what we truly believe is the best fan base in the conference, at the best facility in the country and trust me, teams are always motivated to knock us off on our own sand", said Walker.
The following weekend, the Wildcats will travel to Long Beach, Calif. for a single-day matchup with reigning AVCA national team champions Long Beach State.
Arizona remains on the road as they head to Malibu, Calif. the weekend of April 1-3 to compete against CSU Bakersfield, LMU, and host Pepperdine. They continue on the road to New Orleans, La. to participate in the Tulane Invitational against, Spring Hill College, Georgia State and LSU the weekend of April 8–9.
Cats will then travel back home to challenge its rivals to the north for a home match on Thursday, April 14 at 3 p.m.
The Wildcats will close the regular season with another rival match at Arizona State on Wednesday, April 20.
On April 28 - May 1, UA will participate in the Pac-12 Tournament, with the tournament champion being crowned on the last day of tournament.
Arizona will then have the opportunity to head to Gulf Shores, Ala. for the second time to compete in the NCAA Tournament on Friday, May 6 – Sunday, May 8.
For continued coverage of Arizona Wildcat sand volleyball, visit ArizonaWildcats.com. Follow the Cats! Fans can keep up with the latest in Arizona athletics by following us on Twitter (@arizonasandvb), Instagram (arizonasandvolleyball).
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