APSU Sports Information
Clarksville, TN – A 10-match home slate highlights the Austin Peay State University volleyball team’s 2015 schedule prepared by head coach Taylor Mott and released Tuesday.
The 10 home matches, including an eight-match OVC slate, are the most for the Lady Govs during Mott’s tenure and the most to be played at the Winfield Dunn Center since the 2011 season.
“I believe we have one of the finest home court advantages in our conference,” said Mott. “I felt it was important that we play more than just our conference matches at home and worked to bring in quality opponents for our fans to watch.”
Austin Peay also will compete in four tournaments before the start of league play. The Lady Govs will travel to Purdue, UAB, Chattanooga and Memphis on successive weekends.
The Lady Govs trip to Purdue will provide a stern test right out of the starting gates as the Lady Govs will face a pair of 20-win teams in its first two matches. APSU meets Ohio on opening night, August 28th, before squaring off against host Purdue the following day. The Lady Govs will conclude their northern trip with a contest against VCU.
After opening its home schedule, Austin Peay will travel to UAB for another three-match tourney. The Lady Govs will meet Savannah State, September 4th, followed by contests against Florida International and host UAB the following day.
Austin Peay then meets the toughest opponent on the 2015 slate when it travels to Western Kentucky, September 8th. The Hilltoppers posted a 30-win campaign in 2014 and qualified for the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship.
The Lady Govs will play the first of two in-state tournaments, September 11th-12th, at the Scenic City Showdown hosted by Chattanooga. Austin Peay will meet Gardner-Webb, play a second match against UAB then face host Chattanooga.
Three quality opponents await the following weekend at the Memphis Intercollegiate, September 18th-19th. The Lady Govs will meet Conference USA and 20-win foes Memphis and Southern Miss as well as Southeastern Conference member Mississippi State. That tournament wraps up the Lady Govs preconference slate, but is the start of a seven-match road trip.
“I don’t have any doubt our preseason schedule will prepare us for conference play,” Mott said. “We have a nice mix of teams throughout the schedule that will test us in a lot of different ways. After this schedule our conference opponents shouldn’t present anything we haven’t seen.”
The Lady Govs first four-match OVC homestand follows with contests against SIU Edwardsville (October 9th), Eastern Illinois (October 10th), Tennessee State (October 16th) and Belmont (October 17th).
Austin Peay then plays its final five-match road trip, again all in OVC play. The Lady Govs face Eastern Illinois and SIU Edwardsville for the second time before making trips to both Tennessee Tech and Jacksonville State. Austin Peay then steps out of conference play one final time when they travel to Alabama A&M, November 3rd.
A four-match homestand wraps up the regular-season schedule. Austin Peay begins the homestand against Southeast Missouri (November 6th), UT Martin (November 7th), Murray State (November 11th) and the regular-season finale against Eastern Kentucky (November 14th).
“I’m looking forward to the OVC schedule next season,” said Mott. “No one team ran away with last season’s race and we could have been in the thick of it with a couple of different bounces here and there. We do lose three big pieces in Jada (Stotts), Liz (Landon) and Hillary (Plybon), but we have the pieces in place to make a run at the title in the fall.”
The 2015 schedule will follow a successful spring exhibition campaign by the Lady Govs. Austin Peay posted an 8-1-2 record during the exhibition slate, including wins against Belmont, Georgetown, East Tennessee and Tennessee State. The Lady Govs also split two-set matches against both Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois with the lone loss coming in a two-set match against Auburn.
“I was really impressed with our performance this spring,” Mott said. “We went out and played competitively in every match and saw several players step up their play. It’s encouraging as we look ahead to the fall.”
