DURHAM, N.C. – The Lady Eagles will play 26 matches in head coach Jody Brown’s inaugural campaign as the 2016 North Carolina Central University volleyball schedule was announced on Tuesday.
The fall slate features 10 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference matches and 16 non-conference tilts.
NCCU’s first 10 contests will be played over the course of three weekend tournaments.
The Lady Eagles will open the season on Friday-Saturday, Aug. 26-27 at the James Madison University Invitational. It will mark the second straight year NCCU will play in Harrisonburg, Virginia. After playing the host Dukes, the Lady Eagles will also battle the College of the Holy Cross and Georgia State University.
NCCU will compete in two other events for the first time, beginning with the Blazer Classic hosted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) on Friday-Saturday, Sept. 2-3 and then the UNC Asheville Invitational on Friday-Saturday, Sept. 9-10. The Lady Eagles will open up both tournaments against the host institution. In addition, NCCU will play five other teams over the span of those two events: Southeast Missouri State University, Samford University, Tennessee Technological University, Alabama A&M University and Stetson University.
The Lady Eagles will make their home debut under a newly installed video board in McDougald-McLendon Arena on Tuesday, Sept. 13 against Elon University. NCCU will continue a three-match homestand with showdowns against Winthrop University (Sept. 23) and Gardner-Webb University (Sept. 27). The Lady Eagles played all three of those opponents last year and will see that trio a second time on the road later in the season to complete their non-conference slate.
MEAC play will once again consist of 10 matches, playing the other five Southern Division rivals in home-and-away series. All five home MEAC matches will be contested in October, beginning with perennial favorites Florida A&M University (Friday, Oct. 7) and Bethune-Cookman University (Sunday, Oct. 9). The Lady Eagles will host archrival North Carolina A&T State University on Friday, Oct. 21. NCCU’s last two home matches will occur just before Halloween when South Carolina State University (Friday, Oct. 28) and Savannah State University (Sunday, Oct. 30) visit Durham.
The Lady Eagles road travels will be highlighted at the end of the season, when NCCU visits the Sunshine State and its archrival. NCCU will battle the Rattlers of FAMU in Tallahassee on Nov. 4 and the Wildcats of B-CU in Daytona Beach on Nov. 6 before making the short commute over to Greensboro to face the Aggies of NCAT in its regular-season finale on Friday, Nov. 11.
The 2016 MEAC Championship will return to the campus of University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) in Princess Anne on the weekend of Friday-Sunday, Nov. 18-20. The top four teams from both the Northern and Southern Divisions will qualify for postseason play in the tourney quarterfinals.