Aug. 2, 2000 SEATTLE - Eleven home matches and non-conference contests with perennial powerhouses Texas and Texas A&M highlight the University of Washington volleyball team's 2000 season schedule released Wednesday. The Huskies, under the tutelage of 10th-year head coach Bill Neville, open their home schedule on September 22 against conference foe Arizona State at 7 p.m. The match with the Sun Devils is the first of 11 home dates, which concludes November 19 versus Gonzaga. The first seven home matches will be played at the Hec Edmundson Pavilion Addition, while the final three against UCLA (Nov. 17), USC (Nov. 18) and Gonzaga will be played at the new 10,000-seat Bank of America Arena. Washington opens its 2000 campaign with eight straight road matches, starting with a three-match stop at the Comcast Lobo Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M., September 1-2. Following a mid-week trip to Texas-San Antonio (Sept. 5), Neville's squad will play two more matches against Texas A&M (Sept. 8) and Texas (Sept. 9), before heading off to Los Angeles, Calif., to begin their Pac-10 conference schedule with UCLA (Sept. 14) and USC (Sept. 15). "The early season schedule is a good blend of teams in both style of play and levels of competition," Neville said. "The Pac-10 is formidable - there's no other way to describe it. Everyone is going to be good and we anticipate that every match will be very competitive." Two of the Huskies' road matches will be televised by the Fox Sports Network including the October 6 match against California and the October 29 match versus rival Washington State. The Huskies, who finished 8-18 overall last season, begin practice August 15. |
