Volleyball announces 2024 schedule
The Wiley University volleyball team will compete in 19 regular season matches with eight at Alumni Gymnasium as it revealed its 2024 schedule on Tuesday.
Four home matches will be played against Historically Black Colleges and Universities Athletic Conference schools. The Lady Wildcats will also host a scrimmage against Southwestern Christian College on August 28 and an exhibition match against John Melvin University on September 6. All home matches will be broadcast on HBCU Plus.
Wiley will participate in three scrimmages to prepare for the regular season. It will visit Panola College on August 15 and Lee College on August 30. For the first time since before the 2006 season, the Lady Wildcats will open the regular season with a conference match, hosting last season's regular season runner-up Dillard University on September 5.
On September 6 and 7, they will host a tournament for the second consecutive season. Wiley opens the showdown against St. Mary-of-the-Woods College at noon on Sept. 6. The exhibition match against John Melvin will follow at 6 p.m. The tournament closes on September 7 with matches against Red River Athletic Conference schools Paul Quinn College at noon and Louisiana Christian University at 4 p.m.
The homestand will continue with an HBCUAC match against Tougaloo College on September 8. The Lady Wildcats will take on Huston-Tillotson University on September 15. The home schedule will wrap up against Philander Smith University on September 19 and Southern University at New Orleans on September 21.
The HBCU Athletic Conference added two schools on July 1, Stillman College and Wilberforce University. The addition of these schools caused the conference to split into East and West Divisions. Wiley is in the West Division with Dillard, Philander Smith, Southern-New Orleans and Tougaloo College and will play home-and-home with those schools.
Fisk University, Oakwood University, Stillman, Talladega College and Wilberforce make up the East Division. Inter-divisional matches will be played in pods. The Lady Wildcats will travel to Fisk University and face Wilberforce and the host Lady Bulldogs on September 27. They will finish the pod against Rust College on September 28. Wiley will travel to Talladega College on October 18 and 19. It will face Oakwood University on October 18 and the defending champion and host Tornadoes and Stillman on October 19. HBCU Athletic Conference play wraps up on October 26 at Philander Smith. The Lady Wildcats will conclude the regular season at Texas A&M University-Texarkana on November 1.
The 2024 HBCUAC Championship will be at Bossier Parish Community College for the second straight season. Unlike the previous seasons, only the top four teams in each division will qualify. The conference will get two bids to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Volleyball Championship with the regular season and tournament champion earning bids. If the regular season champion wins the tournament, the tournament runner-up will get the second bid.
The Lady Wildcats enter their first season under head coach Obadiah Montgomery, who served as an assistant coach last season. They return six players from last season's team, including starters Shyla Starks, Fatima Ortega and libero Nadia Cortez. Montgomery recruited several athletes to improve on last season's six wins.
For more coverage on the Lady Wildcats visit Women's Volleyball Home - Wiley University (wileyathletics.com)
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