Moon Township, Pa. – The RMU volleyball program, under the direction of 12th-year head coach Dale Starr, has announced a 30-match schedule featuring four non-conference tournaments and 18 Horizon League contests.
RMU will travel to participate in the Knights Fall Classic, George Mason Invitational, and Mountaineer Invitational, as well as host its own tournament on Labor Day weekend at the UPMC Events Center. The schedule consists of 12 home matches, 10 road contests, and eight neutral site bouts.
LINK: 2021 RMU Volleyball Fall Schedule
The Colonials begin the 2021 fall slate by traveling to former Northeast Conference (NEC) foe Fairleigh Dickinson for the Knights Fall Classic on Aug. 27-28. RMU opens the season against Maryland Eastern Shore on Friday, Aug. 27, looking to tack a fourth win onto its 3-1 all-time record against the Hawks. The Colonials then play two on Saturday, Aug. 28, first facing Manhattan before clashing with the host Knights to end the tournament. RMU is 1-1 all-time versus the Jaspers and 35-12 against FDU, and went undefeated in four bouts with those three teams in 2019.
Labor Day weekend sees the Colonials host their annual home tournament at the UPMC Events Center. It begins at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 3 when RMU faces Liberty for the first time since 1992. The Colonials cap the day with a 7:00 p.m. contest against first-time opponent Idaho, then conclude the invitational on Saturday, Sept. 4 at 2:00 p.m. with Duquesne. RMU and the Dukes didn't play last season for the first time since 1997, and the hosts will look to draw from their last clash in 2019 – a three-set sweep that marked the Colonials' first win over their county rivals in 12 seasons.
RMU continues non-conference play at the George Mason Invitational on Sept. 10-11 with a trio of neutral-site matches. The Colonials will play a pair on Friday, Sept. 10, taking on Coppin State and Morgan State, and finish the weekend on Saturday, Sept. 11 against Marist. RMU owns winning records against all three opponents in their respective all-time series, sitting 9-0 versus CSU, 6-3 against MSU, and 13-4 versus Marist.
The Colonials' final test before Horizon League action commences at West Virginia's Mountaineer Invitational on Sept. 16-17. RMU starts the two-day trek on Thursday, Sept. 16 when it plays UMBC, looking to extend its winning streak to four against the Retrievers. The next day, the Colonials will take on Penn State for the fifth time in program history and first time since 2009, with two of those previous matches coming in the 1999 and 2003 NCAA Tournaments. RMU finishes non-conference play later that afternoon against George Washington.
Horizon League play begins with a four-match home stand over two weekends, beginning Friday, Sept. 24 against Cleveland State. The Colonials then host Oakland – their first league opponent from the spring – on Saturday, Sept. 25, and begin the following month with matches versus Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday, Oct. 1 and IUPUI on Saturday, Oct. 2.
RMU moves into the next week with matches against Northern Kentucky and Youngstown State – two teams it split with over the abbreviated spring season. The Colonials travel to the Bluegrass State on Tuesday, Oct. 5 for their only meeting with the Norse, then return home for a Friday, Oct. 8 clash with their I-79 rivals. The next week sees RMU play three road matches in four days, as it faces Milwaukee on Thursday, Oct. 14, Green Bay on Friday, Oct. 15, and UIC on Sunday, Oct. 17.
After their lone clash against Wright State on Tuesday, Oct. 19 at home, the Colonials start a stretch of five consecutive road matches as they return previous home bouts with Oakland (Saturday, Oct. 23), Cleveland State (Sunday, Oct. 24), Purdue Fort Wayne (Friday, Oct. 29), IUPUI (Saturday, Oct. 30), and Youngstown State (Friday, Nov. 5). RMU finishes the regular season with a three-match home stand, hosting Milwaukee (Thursday, Nov. 11), UIC (Friday, Nov. 12), and Green Bay (Sunday, Nov. 14) for Senior Day. The Horizon League Tournament is set to be held Nov. 19-21.
RMU returns 10 players from last season's team, including fifth-years Emma Granger and Alyson Londot, who both took advantage of the NCAA waiver granting an extra year of eligibility to all 2020-21 fall and winter sport student-athletes. Granger, who only played in 21 total sets over the spring due to injury, became the first player in program history to earn All-Region and All-America recognition in 2019, and is the school's record holder in career and single-season service aces, single-season total blocks, and single-match kills and points.
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