St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Volleyball Releases 2008 Schedule
7/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
July 16, 2008
QUEENS, N.Y. - Head coach Joanne Persico-Smith announced the schedule for the 2008 St. John's women's volleyball season on Wednesday. The Red Storm will face six teams that competed in the 2007 NCAA Tournament, including three programs that were either ranked or receiving votes in the final AVCA/CSTV Top 25 Coaches Poll, most notably the 2007 national semifinalists Cal Berkeley and a possible matchup with perennial powerhouse Nebraska.
"We have an extremely challenging schedule this season, especially in our first few tournaments," said Persico-Smith. "We'll be on the road a lot and will find out early on what we're made of. Playing national contenders like California and either Nebraska or LSU will get us prepared for the always competitive BIG EAST schedule."
The Red Storm will look to extend its 24-match home winning streak by hosting 10 contests on campus. Due to the renovations of Carnesecca Arena throughout September, the first two home matches against Hofstra and Stony Brook will be played in Taffner Fieldhouse. All eight home BIG EAST contests are expected to be played in the newly-renovated Carnesecca Arena.
St. John's, which finished 2007 with its best season in program history with a 33-4 record and the squad's first trip to the regional semifinal round of the NCAA Tournament, will open up its 2008 slate on the West Coast for the second year in a row. The Red Storm will waste no time to play quality opponents as the team will compete in the Cal Molten Classic hosted by the University of California Golden Bears in Berkeley, Calif., Aug 29-30. In the season opener, the squad will take on the Golden Bears, which reached the national semifinals last season and finished the year ranked No. 4 in the nation. Then the Red Storm will face UC Santa Barbara to close out the tournament. While out west, St. John's will square off with San Jose State on Labor Day before returning home.
For its second regular-season tournament, St. John's will travel to College Park, Md., on Sept. 5-6 to take part in the Spring Hill Suites at Arundel Mills Invitational hosted by the University of Maryland. The Red Storm will take on Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland at the competition.
The third tournament of the season is the Ameritas Players Challenge in Lincoln, Neb., and will prove to be another tough test for the Red Storm. STJ will play the University of New Mexico on Sept. 12, and the next day will either take on LSU or the host, Nebraska, who spent all of last year ranked in the top 5.
The Red Storm won't travel far to play in its last non-conference tournament, the Blackbird Invitational hosted by Long Island University. Howard, Houston Baptist and LIU are on the slate at the invite which will take place in Brooklyn on Sept. 19-20.
In local action, St. John's will visit both Central Connecticut State (Sept. 3) and Fordham (Sept. 9) for the second consecutive year. The Red Storm begins its home schedule looking for its fourth straight title against Hofstra at the seventh annual Queens/Nassau Cup on Sept. 16. and wraps up non-conference action at home against Stony Brook on Sept. 23.
St. John's will begin defense of its back-to-back BIG EAST regular season titles at home against the Bearcats of Cincinnati (Sept. 26) and Louisville (Sept. 28). The following weekend, the Red Storm takes to the road to face Marquette (Oct. 3) and Syracuse (Oct. 5). The Red Storm returns home to face Rutgers (Oct. 10) and UConn (Oct. 18) in weekend action, then closes out October on the road, traveling to West Virginia (Oct. 24) and Pittsburgh (Oct. 26).
The Red Storm comes home for two consecutive weekends to host Villanova (Nov. 1), Seton Hall (Nov. 2), USF (Nov. 7) and Georgetown (Nov. 9). The final matches of the regular season will be on the road at Notre Dame (Nov. 14) and DePaul (Nov. 16).
The 2008 BIG EAST Championship, hosted by Pittsburgh, will be held from Nov. 21-23 in Pittsburgh, Pa., where the Red Storm will look to capture a second consecutive tournament title. A potential third NCAA Tournament appearance for St. John's will begin on Dec. 5 at campus sites. NCAA regional action will be held on Dec. 12-13, with the national semifinals and finals matches on Dec. 18-20 in Omaha, Neb.
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