Olmstead releases 2018 women’s volleyball schedule

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PROVO, Utah – BYU women’s volleyball head coach Heather Olmstead announced the 2018 schedule Wednesday.

The Cougars will face five teams in their nonconference schedule that participated in the 2017 NCAA Tournament: Stanford, Wichita State, USC, Marquette and Utah. Additionally, the team will face off twice against conference foe San Diego who also made the 2017 tournament.

BYU will kick off the year hosting an exhibition match against Utah Valley on Aug. 18.

The team will then officially begin the season on the road from Aug. 24-25 at Duke. The Cougars will compete against the Blue Devils twice. BYU is 2-0 all-time against Duke.

The Cougars follow that tournament by hosting the BYU Invitational from Aug. 30-Sept. 1. They will first compete against West Virginia followed by perennial powerhouse Stanford and Wichita State.

BYU won the only other meeting with West Virginia in 2014. The Cougars trail 8-4 in the series history with Stanford and are 1-1 all-time against Wichita State. The Cardinal advanced to the Final Four in 2017 and the Shockers made it to the second round of last year’s NCAA tournament.

The team will then head to Marquette for a tournament from Sept. 7-8 and will also face USC and Syracuse.

BYU is 2-0 against the Golden Eagles and 1-0 against the Orange all-time, but the Cougars trail the overall series history with the Trojans 13-6. USC advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament a season ago while Marquette made the Field of 64.

The team hosts in-state rival Utah in the Deseret First Duel on Sept. 13 before heading to Weber State to compete on Sept. 15. The Cougars won a five-set thriller against the Utes last season in addition to a sweep of the Wildcats. BYU is 70-30 in the series history with Utah and a perfect 61-0 all-time against Weber State. Utah advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of last year’s NCAA tournament.

League play begins next for the Cougars as they look to defend their West Coast Conference title at home against Pacific and Saint Mary’s on Sept. 20 and 22, respectively.

BYU then hits the road at Pepperdine for a Tuesday match on Sept. 25 before returning home for a pair against Gonzaga and Portland on Sept. 27 and Sept. 29.

The Cougars then play at San Diego on Oct. 5, at San Francisco on Oct. 11 and at Santa Clara on Oct. 13. The Toreros advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament last year.

BYU heads home for a return match with San Diego (Nov. 2) as well as Santa Clara (Nov. 8) and San Francisco (Nov. 10) before finishing out the regular-season schedule on the road at Saint Mary’s (Nov. 15), Pacific (Nov. 17) and Loyola Marymount (Nov. 20).

For more information regarding individual matches, visit the 2018 women’s volleyball schedule page.