COLUMBUS — Mississippi University for Women revealed the 2024 schedule for its volleyball team this week, with the season set to begin at the end of August.
This will be the first season under new head coach, Breylee Linder, who took over the program in May. The Owls finished with a record of 8-20 in 2023, the program’s first year with NCAA Division III status. They went 5-13 in conference play in their first year as St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference members.
“I’m excited about the schedule we’ve got this year,” Linder said. “We have a lineup that will help us identify our strengths and weaknesses pretty early. I’m especially looking forward to testing ourselves against some strong opponents, especially in conference play, and seeing how we measure up.”
The Owls open the 2024 season with three straight home games against non-conference opponents. They’ll face Crowley’s Ridge College on Aug. 30 in their opener, followed by Jarvis Christian College on Sept. 4 and Belhaven University on Sept. 7.
The Owls have a home-and-home series with Huntingdon College before they open SLIAC play with a series of road matches to close out September. They return home on Oct. 5 for conference matchups with Eureka College and Principia College and then head to St. Louis for matches against Webster University, Fontbonne University, and Spalding University.
There are a few more road trips with conference opponents and home-and-home series games with non-conference opponents before a stretch of home games in November to close out the regular season.
The SLIAC conference tournament will take place Nov. 14-16 featuring the top six ranked teams in the conference. The Owls missed the cut in their inaugural SLIAC season.
Linder hopes to continue building the program this year, emphasizing a need to uphold the team’s highly regarded academic standards as well as improve their play on the court.
“When I first took the job, the biggest point of emphasis was about setting a clear and high expectation of excellence across all facets of life as a student-athlete,” she said. “We will do the simple things at the highest level, which will give us plenty of room for success, but we won’t shy away from some inevitable failures. Since we don’t have a ton of time to prepare for our season, the other major priority for us will be focusing on what we can control, every day and every time we step onto the court. If we can get these things right, I believe we could see something special this season.”
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