St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Releases 2009 Volleyball Schedule
7/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
July 31, 2009
QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John's volleyball head coach Joanne Persico announced the schedule for the 2009 Red Storm season on Friday. The squad will square off against four local-rivals and play in four non-conference tournaments before opening conference action and defending its back-to-back-to-back BIG EAST regular season championships. The 2009 slate will feature five teams that competed in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, including conference foes Louisville and Cincinnati.
"We have worked very hard during the offseason to prepare ourselves for a challenging schedule," said Persico. "We are also looking forward to competing for our fourth-straight BIG EAST regular season championship against a very tough slate of conference opponents."
The Red Storm will kick off the 2009 campaign when it travels to Virginia Commonwealth on Friday, Aug. 28, in Richmond, Va., to take part in the VCU/Third Degree Sportswear Invitational. At the invite, St. John's will face off against East Carolina and VCU on the first day before facing Temple on Saturday.
STJ will return to the friendly confines of Queens when it holds the St. John's Classic Sept. 4-5 at Taffner Field House. The Red Storm will play host to former BIG EAST-foe Boston College, as well as Quinnipiac and local-rival Fordham. St. John's third tournament of the season will be Sept. 11-12 when the squad takes part in the Miami Best Western Invitational in Oxford, Ohio. There, STJ will face Miami (Ohio), Pacific and Troy.
The last non-conference tournament will have the Red Storm traveling to Upstate New York to play in the Cornell Invitational Sept. 18-19. St. John's will take on Buffalo, Cornell and Colgate in the all-Empire State field.
In local action, STJ will play host to Siena on Sept. 8, which will be "Camper Reunion Day" for participants in the 2009 Summer Series Volleyball Clinic. St. John's will also host LIU on Sept. 22 and will travel to Stony Brook (Sept. 1) and Hofstra. The Sept. 16 match between the Red Storm and the Pride in Hempstead will be eighth annual Queens/Nassau Cup match.
BIG EAST action begins the weekend of Sept. 25 when the Red Storm welcomes DePaul and Notre Dame (Sept. 27). St. John's takes to the road again to face Georgetown (Oct. 2) and USF (Oct. 4). The squad will then move back into a renovated Carnesecca Arena when it hosts Syracuse on Oct. 10 in the second annual "Dig for the Cure" event to raise funds for breast cancer awareness. The next day STJ will welcome Marquette to Queens. After stopping off to play at Villanova Oct. 18, the Red Storm comes back to campus for its final three home matches of the season: Connecticut (Oct. 24), Pittsburgh (Oct. 30), and West Virginia (Nov. 1). The last four matches of the regular season will be on the road at Seton Hall (Nov. 6), Rutgers (Nov. 8), Louisville (Nov. 13) and Cincinnati (Nov. 15).
After conference regular season action ends, the top eight teams will qualify for the 2009 BIG EAST Championship, hosted by Louisville. The tournament will be held Nov. 20-22 at UofL's Cardinal Arena, where the Red Storm would be vying for its second tournament title. A potential third NCAA Tournament appearance for St. John's will begin on Dec. 3 at campus sites. NCAA regional action will be held on Dec. 11-12, with the national semifinals and finals matches on Dec. 17-19 in Tampa, Fla.
For ticket information for St. John's volleyball home matches, please call 1-888-GO-STORM.
Get The Latest St. John's Volleyball News Directly To Your E-Mail
If you would like to receive the most updated information, including news releases, game notes and game recaps, directly to your e-mail, send an e-mail to Joe Guster at stjcommunications@stjohns.edu with the subject "Volleyball E-mail".
Follow St. John's Volleyball On Twitter
Alumni, fans and friends now have a new to keep up with the latest St. John's volleyball news - Twitter! Red Storm supporters can log onto the Internet and receive the latest updates on the volleyball squad by visiting the official Twitter site of St. John's volleyball: www.twitter.com/STJ_Volleyball.
