Northwestern University Athletics

VB Starters Celebrating

Northwestern Unveils 2016 Schedule

6/9/2016 2:00:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

2016 Schedule
 
EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern will play a competitive schedule in its first season under head coach Shane Davis with 17 matches against 2015 NCAA tournament teams and 13 against opponents who were ranked and receiving votes at the end of last year.
 
All 13 of those matchups come in the Wildcats' 20-match conference schedule, which begins with a Sept. 21 date at Indiana.
 
Chicago's Big Ten Team plays its first home game of 2016 on Sunday, Sept. 25 at 1 p.m. against Penn State. Northwestern beat the Nittany Lions last season for the first time since 2002 in a thrilling five-set match.
 
The Wildcats play nine more times at Welsh-Ryan Arena, including matches against Iowa (Oct. 1), Illinois (Oct. 5), Michigan (Oct. 12), Purdue (Oct. 21) and Indiana (Oct. 23). The team concludes the home schedule with a four-match stand in mid-November vs. Wisconsin (Nov. 12), Minnesota (Nov. 13), Ohio State (Nov. 18) and Maryland (Nov. 19).
 
Northwestern plays Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State and Penn State twice with meetings against Maryland (H), Michigan State (A), Nebraska (A), Purdue (H), Rutgers (A) and Wisconsin (H) occurring just once.
 
Davis has also put together a demanding non-conference schedule with 12 matches taking place over the course of four tournaments.
 
The 2016 season begins at the Cavalier Classic hosted by Virginia on Aug. 26. The Wildcats will match up against George Washington, Buffalo and Virginia in the year's first three contests.
 
The Dayton Invitational is up next with matches against UT-Chattanooga, Dayton and Xavier. The Wildcats then head to Nashville, Tenn. for the Lipscomb Invitational vs. Virginia Tech, Lipscomb and Ole Miss.
 
The non-conference schedule wraps up against North Dakota State, Syracuse and Northern Iowa at the UNI Tournament in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
 
Dayton, Lipscomb and Northern Iowa all made appearances in the NCAA tournament a year ago.
 
Northwestern returns 13 players from last year's team, including All-Big Ten and All-AVCA setter Taylor Tashima. Returning middle blocker Maddie Slater is coming off one of the best single-season hitting performances in program history. She hit at a .344 clip, the fourth-best mark at Northwestern. Kayla Morin is the team's active career leader in kills with 843.

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Volleyball - 'Cats Defeat Iowa on Rylen Reid's 27-Kill Night (10/31/25)
Saturday, November 01
Volleyball - 'Cats Outlast Michigan in Five-Set Thriller (10/16/25)
Friday, October 17
Volleyball - Wildcats Sweep Campbell to Close Non-Conference Play (9/20/2025)
Sunday, September 21
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Wednesday, September 10