Pawlikowski Announces 2016 Stony Brook Seawolves Volleyball Schedule

Stony Brook – Stony Brook head volleyball coach Coley Pawlikowski has announced the Seawolves’ 2016 schedule, which features 29 matches to prepare Stony Brook for the America East Championship and the goal of the Seawolves’ first NCAA tournament appearance of the Division I era.
The 2016 slate features six matches against teams that appeared in the 2015 NCAA tournament and three more against teams who qualified in 2014. The Seawolves will face two members of the ACC, one SEC member, and a total of six teams from conferences ranked in the top 10 nationally in RPI in 2015.
“We are incredibly excited about the upcoming 2016 season,” said Pawlikowski. “Our returning players, plus the strength of our incoming class, continue to raise the bar for our program and elevate our path in the direction we are going.
“We have again put in place a very challenging schedule for our young program. We have four competitive preseason non-conference tournaments in place featuring NCAA tournament teams.
“We once again structured one of the most demanding schedules in the program’s history and understand the importance of our opponents’ strength in order to improve our program in preparation for conference play.
“We also are looking forward to returning to the hometowns of Taylor Wilson and Cydney Bowman, providing them the opportunity to bring our program to play in front of their home crowd. This is something we have done each year and has been memorable and exciting for all our athletes. There’s something about bringing your team to your hometown that really is special and has been an important piece of our scheduling equation each year.
“As we continue to grow on and off the court, putting a schedule in place that challenges us to be better physically better as well as gain a better understanding and respect for each other through the adversity of strong competition has proven to be invaluable.”
The Seawolves will open the 2016 season August 26 in Orlando, Florida, with the first two of three matches at UCF. The Seawolves play their first match of the year against the host Knights before facing Stetson. The third match of the weekend will be against Kent State (Aug. 27). The trip will be a homecoming for junior Cydney Bowman (Lake Mary, Fla.), a native of the Orlando area.
Stony Brook will return north to face Long Island foe Hofstra (Aug. 30) in Hempstead before heading back on the road for three matches at Louisville. The Seawolves open the weekend against SEC member Auburn (Sept. 2) before a match against the host Cardinal (Sept. 3). Louisville was the No. 15 national seed in the 2015 NCAA tournament. The competitive tournament in Kentucky wraps up against another 2015 NCAA tournament team, Santa Clara (Sept. 3). Sophomore Taylor Wilson (Corydon, Ind.) resides just across the Ohio River from Louisville.
Stony Brook’s home opener will be Sept. 7 when the Seawolves host Iona for the first of 11 regular-season matches at Pritchard Gymnasium. Stony Brook then returns to the road for three matches in the South County region of Rhode Island, as the Seawolves will play in a weekend invitational hosted by Rhode Island. Stony Brook will face the host Rams and Notre Dame (Sept. 9) before a match against San Diego State (Sept. 10).
The Seawolves Invite will be split between two sites this year, as Hofstra will share hosting duties with Stony Brook in 2016. There will be two matches played at Pritchard Gymnasium, as the Seawolves host defending Patriot League champions American (Sept. 16) and IPFW (Sept. 17). The Saturday matinee against the Mastodons will be a reunion for assistant coach Garrett Bitter, who served on the IPFW staff prior to joining the Seawolves earlier this year.
Fordham makes a return trip to Stony Brook (Sept. 20) before America East play opens on the road with a match at UMBC (Sept. 23). The Seawolves will close September with a midweek contest across Long Island Sound at Sacred Heart (Sept. 27).
October begins with a trip to New England to face defending America East champion New Hampshire (Oct. 2) followed by visits from in-state foes Binghamton (Oct. 7) and Albany (Oct. 9). Stony Brook will go back across the ferry for matches at UMass Lowell (Oct. 14) and Hartford (Oct. 15) before closing October with just two matches in the month’s final 14 days, hosting UMBC (Oct. 21) and New Hampshire (Oct. 28) in Friday night clashes at Pritchard Gymnasium.
November opens with a stretch of five matches in 10 days as Stony Brook begins the month with a trip to Binghamton (Nov. 4) and Albany (Nov. 5). The Seawolves return home to host defending MAAC champion (Nov. 9) before closing America East play against Hartford (Nov. 11) and UMass Lowell (Nov. 13).
The regular-season champion will host the America East Championship the following weekend in a four-team tournament to determine the conference’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament.
The Seawolves, with their sights set on their first NCAA tournament appearance in the Division I era, will close the regular season the following Tuesday with a matchup at LIU Brooklyn (Nov. 22).
Stony Brook returns eight players from the 2015 squad and adds seven newcomers. The 2016 Seawolves will be made up of seven freshmen, three sophomores, two redshirt-sophomores and three juniors.
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