Head Coach Sia Poyer from the Eastern New Mexico volleyball team has officially announced the release of the 2019 Greyhounds volleyball schedule.
The Hounds will open the season on Sept. 6 at the CSU-San Marcos Tournament in San Marcos, Calif. Eastern will play four matches in two days, opening the tournament with matches against Saint Martin’s and Azusa Pacific before wrapping up the tourney with Bentley and CSU-San Marcos on Sept. 7.
“We’re really looking forward to opening the season at the San Marcos Tournament,” said Poyer. “We’ll be playing against some of the top teams from the West Region, including Azusa Pacific who was in the national tournament last season. I believe with the level of competition we will be facing, this tournament will be a fantastic early test for our team to see what we are made of.”
The Greyhounds will return to the court the following week for the Texas Woman’s and Dallas Baptist Tournament, where ENMU will play on the campus of TWU in Denton, Texas on Sept. 13 before heading to DBU in Dallas on Sept. 14. The Hounds will play Sioux Falls and Harding in the Friday matches and will wrap up the tournament with Pace and Oklahoma Baptist the following day.
Eastern will officially open Lone Star Conference play on Feb. 20 with its first home match of the season against Lubbock Christian on Friday, Sept. 20 followed by Angelo State on Saturday, Feb. 21.
“With the expansion of the Lone Star this year and the conference being broken up into pods, we’re really looking forward to facing some new competition,” Poyer added. “Our conference was already an incredibly strong volleyball league and with the additions of some quality teams from the Heartland Conference as well as UT-Tyler, we’re going to be challenged week in and week out.”
The Hounds will hit the road for a three-match road stand from Sept. 27-Oct. 1 with matches at St. Mary’s on Sept. 27, St. Edward’s on Sept. 28, and West Texas A&M on Oct. 1 before returning home on Friday, Oct. 4 to take on Texas Woman’s and as well as Oct. 5 against MSU Texas.
ENMU will hit the road the following week for rematches at Angelo State and Lubbock Christian on Oct. 11 and Oct. 12 before returning home for a three-game slate against West Texas A&M on Oct. 15, Western New Mexico on Oct. 25 and UT-Permian Basin on Oct. 26.
The Hounds will start the month of November on the road with a matchup at LSC newcomer Texas A&M-International on Nov. 1 before facing off with Texas A&M-Kingsville on Nov. 2.
The Greyhounds will host their final home games of the season against UT-Tyler on Friday, Nov. 8 with Senior Day falling on Saturday, Nov. 9 against Texas A&M-Commerce. ENMU will close out the regular season on the road with matches at UT-Permian Basin on Nov. 15 and Western New Mexico on Nov. 16.