June 13, 2017
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State Head Volleyball Coach Deitre Collins-Parker has announced the Aztecs' 2017 season schedule, a slate that includes six NCAA Tournament participants from a year ago. SDSU will compete in four tournaments this fall including two it will host prior to the start of its Mountain West slate of matches.
San Diego State will get its season underway when it hosts the annual Aztec Invitational the weekend of Aug. 25-26. The Aztecs' opener comes on Friday, Aug. 25, against Eastern Kentucky at 7:30 p.m. on Aztec Court. They will also face Portland State and Cal State Northridge on Aug. 26.
The Aztecs will then travel to East Lansing, Mich., for the Auto-Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational Sept. 1-2. SDSU will begin play with a match vs. Michigan State, an NCAA Tournament participant last fall, on Friday, Sept. 1, at 11:30 a.m. ET. Other teams at the Spartan Invitational include Marshall and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
The following weekend (Sept. 8-9), San Diego State will host a second tournament, the Aztec Challenge, with matches against Pacific, Long Beach State and Loyola Marymount on Aztec Court.
The Aztecs will then take a break from tournament play when they travel across town to face the Univeristy of San Diego on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 6:00 p.m. at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. The Toreros are perennial NCAA tourney participants.
SDSU's fourth preseason tournament will be the Denver Invitational hosted by the University of Denver Sept. 15-16. In addition to 2016 NCAA tourney team Denver, the Aztecs will also face Gonzaga and UC Riverside.
The Aztecs will begin Mountain West Conference play the following week when they visit Utah State (Sept. 21) and Boise State (Sept. 23). The conference home opener comes the next week when San Jose State and Nevada visit Aztec Court in Peterson Gym (Sept. 28 and 30).
Three MW teams advanced to the NCAA Tournament a year ago including Boise State, UNLV and Colorado State.
With 18 conference matches and an unbalanced schedule, San Diego State will face each Mountain West team home and away with the exception of Wyoming and Colorado State, who they will play just once. Those contests will come at the end of the season when the Aztecs travel to Laramie (Nov. 15) before concluding their regular season by hosting a match against Colorado State on Nov. 18.
The Aztecs return four starters plus a libero along with four other letterwinners (and three redshirt freshmen) from a team that finished 17-15 overall and 9-9 in Mountain West Conference play last season.
SDSU signed three talented recruits for the upcoming campaign as well. That trio includes middle blocker Erin Gillcrist (Lakewood, Colo.), setter Gabi Peoples (Beaverton, Ore.) and right side hitter Onnie Walker (Fairfield, Calif.).