2011 VB Schedule
ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop head volleyball coach Julie Torbett has announced the 2011 volleyball schedule that will get underway with the Winthrop Classic by Hampton Inn on August 26 and includes a total of 27 regular season matches.
“I am excited for the season to begin and to represent Winthrop University,” says the veteran head coach who took over the Winthrop program in April after 18 successful years at UNC Asheville..
Torbett has lined up appearances in four invitational tournaments. In addition to the Winthrop Classic (Aug. 26-27) which includes UNC Wilmington, Mercer and Davidson, her team will be competing in a tournament at Kennesaw State (Sept. 2-3), the Carolina Challenge (Sept. 9-10) which will be hosted by College of Charleston, and a three-team tourney at Elon (Sept. 16-17). The Kennesaw State tournament will also include Oral Roberts and UT-Chattanooga. Clemson and South Carolina will join Winthrop and Charleston in the Carolina Classic. North Carolina Central is the other team in the Elon tournament. The Eagles will also face Charlotte for a Sept. 14 road match.
Big South Conference play gets underway on Sept. 23 when Winthrop hosts Charleston Southern. The conference will not play a double round robin schedule this year after adding Campbell University as a new member which gives the league nine volleyball-playing members. During the 2011 season Winthrop will face five schools twice (Charleston Southern, Coastal Carolina, Presbyterian, Gardner-Webb and UNC Asheville) and will play four schools once (Campbell, High Point, Liberty and Radford).
The 2011 Big South Conference Championship tournament will be held Nov. 17-20 at Charleston Southern University.
“I am pleased with our preseason schedule. We have top teams from the ACC, and Southern Conference as well as competition from the SEC, Atlantic Sun, Summit League , Colonial and Conference USA on the schedule,” says Torbett.
“The Conference decided to go to a round and a half in league play this year, so that will be interesting. If the league is pretty balanced from top to bottom it will make it difficult to feel as though the regular season standings accurately seed the teams for the tournament.
