Grizzlies to play tough, heavy in-region 2008 schedule

ALAMOSA, Colo.— The Adams State College volleyball team will play a dozen matches against teams that competed in the 2007 NCAA Division II National Tournament, according to a brutally tough 2008 Grizzly schedule that Lindy Mortensen has finalized.

The Grizzlies will play at tournaments hosted by Colorado Mines and UC-Colorado Springs during the first two weekends off the season before beginning always challenging Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play on Sept. 12 at Fort Lewis, the team the Grizzlies defeated to gain their first post-season win in four years last year’s RMAC Tournament quarterfinals.

With the RMAC switching to the Central Region, which also includes teams from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and the soon to be defunct North Central Conference, this fall, the Grizzlies will be playing in-region opponents in 25 of their 26 matches.

That stretch begins on Friday, Aug. 29 when the Grizzlies will face Wayne State (Neb.) and Minnesota State-Mankato, two teams that competed in last year’s North Central Region Tournament, at the Colorado Mines Days Inn-Denver West Classic in Golden. The Grizzlies will then take on another in-region foe in Winona State (Minn.), a team they faced in a 5-game thriller in Alamosa last fall, and Great Lakes Valley Conference representative Wisconsin-Parkside on Saturday, Aug. 30, the second day of the affair.

Less than a week later, the Grizzlies will face three more 2007 NCAA Tournament participants in as many days during the UC-Colorado Springs hosted Marriott Volleyball Invitational in Colorado Springs.

The Grizzlies will first take on the host Mountain Lions in a non-conference match on Thursday, Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. That contest will be a re-match of a RMAC Tournament semifinal affair, which the Mountain Lions won in four games.

A day later, the Grizzlies will face Minnesota-Duluth, a team that was ranked amongst the top 5 of the CSTV/American Volleyball Coaches Association Division II Top 25 poll for the entire 2007 season. The Bulldogs hosted the North Central Regional Tournament last year and finished the year with a 29-2 record.

On Saturday, Sept. 5 at 2:30 p.m., the Grizzlies will square off against Southwest Minnesota State, a team that finished with a 26-8 record in 2007 after defeating Minnesota State-Mankato in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament before bowing out to eventual national champion Concordia-St. Paul in the second round.

The Grizzlies are then at Fort Lewis and Western State in the first weekend of RMAC play before playing at home for the first time on Friday, Sept. 19 against New Mexico Highlands, the start of a stretch when ASC will play in Plachy Hall five times in six matches.

Saturday, Sept. 27 and Friday, Oct. 3 matches with Mesa State, another NCAA Tournament team in 2007, and UC-Colorado Springs also highlight that stretch while a Thursday, Oct. 16 match with RMAC Champion and Southwest Regional Runner-Up Nebraska-Kearney and a regular season-ending tilt with Fort Lewis on Saturday, Nov. 8 also stand out amongst the 10-match home schedule for Mortensen’s squad that will be led by juniors-to-be Darcy Jennings (Lakin, Kan.) and Andrea Tuck (Erie, Colo.), both of whom earned All-Southwest Region honors as sophomores in 2007.

Related Item: Complete Schedule