SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Volleyball released its 2016 schedule, head volleyball coach
Beth Launiere announced on Tuesday.
The Utes will open the 2016 slate with three regular-season tournaments, which includes hosting the Utah Volleyball Classic (Aug. 26-27), while also traveling to both the Missouri Invitational (Sept. 2-3) and Portland Invitational (Sept. 9-10).
Utah will host Idaho State, Gonzaga and Butler in its home tournament, while turning around to face Rice, Missouri and Illinois State at the Missouri Invite, and then taking on Texas State, CSU Bakersfield and Portland in the Portland Invite.
Utah will close out its non-conference slate against in-state rivals, BYU (Sept. 15 in Provo) and Utah State (Sept. 17 in Salt Lake City), before taking on a rigorous Pac-12 schedule that includes five teams who finished among the top-25 or received votes in last season's final AVCA Poll.
The Utes open Pac-12 play on the road at Colorado on Wednesday, Sept. 21 and conclude the regular-season at home against the Buffs on Friday, Nov. 25.
Utah's Pac-12 home also include facing Arizona State (Sept. 24), UCLA (Sept. 30), USC (Oct. 1), Oregon (Oct. 21), Oregon State (Oct. 22), California (Nov. 4), Stanford (Nov. 5), Washington State (Nov. 17) and Washington (Nov. 20).
The Utes will play live on television in 13 contests this season, with 12 of those matches televised on the Pac-12 Networks. Utah's match at Oregon on Wednesday, Nov. 9, has been billed the "Pac-12 Match of the Week".
Utah Volleyball fans can get an up-close look at the team prior to the regular season, when the team hosts its annual Red/White Scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 20. The match will begin at 1 p.m. inside the Jon M. Huntsman Center.