St. John's University Athletics
Head Coach Joanne Persico Announces 2015 Volleyball Schedule
5/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
- Â Â Â Â Â Â 2015 Schedule
- Â Â Â Â Â Â 2015 Schedule (PDF)
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QUEENS, N.Y. -- Heading into her 22nd season as the head coach of the Red Storm, Joanne Persico has announced the St. John's volleyball team's 2015 schedule. The 33-game schedule features seven matches against 2014 NCAA Tournament teams, four in-season tournaments, 15 home matches, and 18 BIG EAST conference matches.
"This is an exciting and ambitious schedule," said Persico. "This is one of our toughest schedules leading into BIG EAST play. We feel that we have a good core of juniors and seniors that can use their experience to compete against these teams."
The regular season opens up in Philadelphia, Pa., with the Temple Invitational (Aug. 28-29) where the Red Storm will take on host-Temple before facing Oregon, who made a run into the third round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament and finished the season ranked No. 14 in the AVCA Coaches' Poll. The Red Storm will then close out the tournament against Navy before returning to Queens for its home opener against Iona (Sept. 1).
From there, the Red Storm will travel across the country to Moraga, Calif., to compete in the Saint Mary's Invitational. The two-day event opens with a match against host-Saint Mary's (Sept. 4) before matches against Fresno State and Bethune-Cookman on Sept. 5.
St. John's will return home on Sept. 11-12 to host the 2015 Jack Kaiser Volleyball Classic that features four matches in two days at Carnesecca Arena in Queens. St. John's will open things up with a match against George Mason and Central Connecticut State on Sept. 11 before rounding things out against Cornell and San Francisco on Sept. 12.
"I'm just honored to have had the privilege of having Coach Kaiser as an athletic director, mentor, and now as a friend," said Persico. "We are excited for the Kaiser Classic and hopefully we will be able to honor Coach Kaiser by winning his own tournament and keeping the trophy home."
Following the Kaiser Classic, the Red Storm will remain in Queens to face 2014 Northeast Conference regular-season and tournament champion LIU-Brooklyn, who has won nine of the last 11 conference tournament titles.
The Red Storm will then head south to Florida to compete against some of the elite teams in the country from Sept. 17-19. St. John's will first face Florida, who advanced to the 2014 NCAA Regional Final, in Gainesville on Sept. 17. The Gators finished last season ranked No. 6 with a 28-4 record. The Red Storm will then make a trip to Tampa to face defending National Champion Penn State and Auburn in the USF Invitational on Sept. 19, to round out its tournament schedule. The Nittany Lions have won seven national championships, including six of the last eight.Â
Already 15 games into its schedule, the Red Storm will head to Indianapolis, Ind., to open up conference action on the road against Butler on Sept. 25 before making the short trip to Cincinnati, Ohio, to face Xavier (Sept. 26).
"We open up the BIG EAST conference with three of the top five teams from last season, which are Butler, Xavier and defending champion Creighton." said Persico. "It will be tough but I think our team will be up for the challenge and hopefully we can bring home the BIG EAST title in 2015."
The Red Storm will host a three-match homestand as it takes on defending BIG EAST champion Creighton (Oct. 2), Georgetown (Oct. 3) and Villanova (Oct. 7) before returning to the road with a match against Providence on Oct. 10.
After taking on Seton Hall at home on Oct. 14, the Red Storm will open a four-game road trip against DePaul (Oct. 16) before traveling to Milwaukee to take on Marquette (Oct. 17). The following weekend the Red Storm will make the trip to Washington, D.C., to face Georgetown (Oct. 23) and then travel to Omaha for a match against Creighton (Oct. 25)
A five-match homestand follows as St. John's takes on Xavier (Oct. 30), Butler (Oct. 31), Providence (Nov. 6), Marquette (Nov. 14), and DePaul (Nov. 15).
St. John's rounds out the 2015 regular-season schedule with a two-match road trip against local rival Seton Hall (Nov. 20) before heading to Pennsylvania to take on Villanova (Nov. 21).
The BIG EAST Volleyball Championship (Nov. 27-28) will be held in Omaha, Neb., at the D.J. Sokol Arena.
