Men's Volleyball Slate Released
10/2/2012 11:14:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
In its final year of transitioning to NCAA Division II as an institution, CBU men's volleyball opens its first season of play in the prestigious Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
"It's going to be a very tough year as the new team in the MPSF," said first year head coach Wes Schneider. "Being a part of the MPSF is going to bring the best volleyball in the country into Van Dyne Gym on a weekly basis and that is something we are very excited about."
The Lancers were accepted into the league back in January, becoming the 13th member of the conference which has won 37 of 42 NCAA Men's Volleyball National Championships all-time. CBU faces the likes of BYU, UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, Hawaii, Cal State Northridge, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego and Pacific in conference play.
Following some early season exhibitions, the Lancers open the regular season at UC Santa Barbara's Elephant Bar Tournament Jan. 4-5. CBU then comes home to open conference play on January 16, hosting the defending national champs UC Irvine.
The Lancers have home and away matches with every MPSF member except for Hawaii, which will play back-to-back matches at the Van Dyne Gym.
CBU also hosts Harvard, March 18, in a non-conference home matchup, and plays on the road at Concordia and against Springfield (Mass.) Jan. 19.
The Lancers finished last season 12-16, but bring back the program's second all-time kill leader Levi Cabral (1,479 kills) after redshirting the 2012 campaign. Cabral joins a squad that returns its kill and dig leader, Aaron McCalmont, and block leader, Kristopher Johnson.
