NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State volleyball program announced its 2019 schedule today. Highlights include an expanded MEAC schedule and 11 home matches throughout the year.
New this season, NSU will play teams from the MEAC Southern Division that will count toward its conference record. The Spartans will play all five teams once in addition to its normal schedule of playing the other five MEAC Northern Division teams twice.
Eight of those 15 conference matches will be at home. The Spartans also host Hampton, American and George Washington as well for its largest home slate since 2012.
NSU's Green vs. Gold Scrimmage will take place on Aug. 24, and the official start to the season occurs the following weekend. The Spartans will play at Hampton on Aug. 30 and then host the Pirates on Aug. 31 at 1 p.m.
Norfolk State also competes in a pair of tournaments in September, including at Radford on Sept. 6-7. The Spartans will take on Fordham, Rider and Toledo that weekend. They also compete at East Carolina on Sept. 13-14, taking on USC Upstate, George Washington and the host Pirates.
The team's only other non-conference match before the start of MEAC play takes plays in between those two tournaments, a home contest against American on Sept. 11 at 6 p.m.
MEAC play kicks off with NSU on the road two straight weekends. The Spartans play at Florida A&M (Sept. 27) and Bethune-Cookman (Sept. 29), and then at Maryland Eastern Shore (Oct. 4) and Delaware State (Oct. 6). But after that, nine of the last 12 matches of the regular season are at home.
It starts with Coppin State (Oct. 11) and Morgan State (Oct. 14), both at 6 p.m. Following a contest at Howard on Oct. 18, the Spartans close out the month by hosting non-conference foe George Washington (Oct. 21) and MEAC opponent North Carolina A&T (Oct. 25), both at 6 p.m. They also welcome North Carolina Central to town at 1 p.m. on Oct. 27.
The Spartans complete the home-and-home with road contests at Coppin State and Morgan State on Nov. 1 and 3, respectively. Norfolk State will then close out the regular season by hosting Northern Division foes Maryland Eastern Shore (Nov. 8, 6 p.m.), Delaware State (Nov. 10, 2 p.m.), and Howard (Nov. 12, 6 p.m.), followed by the year's lone contest against Southern Division opponent South Carolina State (Nov. 17, 1 p.m.).
All home matches are played at Gill Gymnasium.
This year's MEAC Championship takes place from Nov. 22-24 at Howard. The top four teams from each division advance.
Norfolk State finished 4-17 overall last year and 3-7 in the MEAC. The program did not lose a single senior off last year's roster and is expected to announce several signees for the 2019 recruiting class in the next few weeks.
