Jing Pu and the Orange will face seven NCAA Tournament teams and seven teams for the first time in 2006.
Volleyball Announces 2006 Schedule
4/24/2006 5:05:57 PM | Volleyball
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Orange volleyball team will take on 10 squads that advanced to the 2005 Women’s Volleyball Championship and eight of the nation's preseason top 50 teams in the 2006 season. Conference foes Louisville and Notre Dame, along with Kentucky, Siena, Cornell, Long Island, and Binghamton all competed for the national championship last season and appear on SU’s 2006 schedule, announced today by head coach Jing Pu. Syracuse will also host a tournament on the weekend of September 1-2.
Louisville and Notre Dame both advanced to the round of 16 in last year’s championship. Kentucky, Siena, and Binghamton all bowed out in the first round, while Long Island defeated Cornell in first round action.
The 2006 slate features seven schools that Syracuse has never faced. The Orange will take on two of those opponents in its first tournament at Wichita State on August 25. SU opens with Eastern Washington and Texas-San Antonio and then takes on Louisiana Tech, which will be just the second meeting between those two teams. At the Sacramento State tournament, Syracuse will meet UC-Riverside, Western Kentucky, and Sacramento State for the first time in history. The opening game with San Francisco will be the second time those two teams have matched up.
Tournament play returns to the Salt City on September 1-2 after an absence last season. The Orange was able to attract NCAA Tournament team Kentucky, San Diego State, New Hampshire, and Siena, who defeated SU in five games last year.
SU closes out its tournament schedule at Albany, where the Orange lost a 3-2 heartbreaker last season. Middle Tennessee State and Syracuse will meet for the first time in the state’s capital. The field is rounded out with Temple.
The BIG EAST slate opens with a familiar counterpart with Louisville at home on September 22. Last year, the nationally-ranked Cardinals took a pair of 3-1 matches against Syracuse within a week of each other, first in the regular season finale, and then in the BIG EAST semifinals. On October 8, SU travels to South Bend to take on perennial power Notre Dame.
On October 22, Orange rival Pittsburgh will invade Manley Field House looking to avenge its loss last season in the BIG EAST Championship first round. The Panthers had a 2-0 lead on Syracuse, but the Orange climbed all the way back to take the win. It was the first time that SU had ever beaten Pitt in postseason play and was its first win in the BIG EAST Championship since 1999.
Long Island is an addition to the schedule, which SU will face on November 11 for the first time. It is the second match of a three-day, three-match road swing. The Blackbirds won the Northeast Conference title last season and defeated Cornell in the NCAA Tournament to become the first NEC team to ever win in the tournament.
Syracuse had one of the most successful seasons in school history in 2005. The Orange finished 25-10 and went 11-3 in the BIG EAST, the most wins in the conference in program history. In the last two seasons, Pu has led SU to a 50-17 overall record.
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