Another Strong Weekend for Volleyball

For the second weekend in a row, the Xavier volleyball team won two out of three matches in an invitational tournament. This time, the Musketeers swept both Quinnipiac and VCU in three straight sets each, before losing the final match of the Maryland Invite to the host school, Maryland Terrapins.

After two weekends of play, Xavier now stands at 4-2 on the young season. Next weekend, they'll travel down to Bowling Green, KY to compete in the Western Kentucky Invitational. The Muskies will face the host school, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, to begin the weekend and will also face difficult challenges against LSU and Wake Forest while in Bowling Green.

The Western Kentucky Invitational will be followed by the Michigan/Adidas Tournament the following weekend in Ann Arbor, MI where Xavier will face another challenging slate of matches against Texas A&M, Michigan, and Toledo. The Muskies will then have one final tune up before Atlantic 10 Conference play begins. That tune up will also mark the first home game of the year, a match with nearby Wright State University at the Cintas Center on Tuesday, September 20th at 7:00 p. m.

The A-10 opener will follow just three days later against Temple on Friday, September 23rd, also at the friendly confines of Cintas Center. There is no doubt that the Musketeers have a tough road ahead of them before entering conference play, but head coach Mike Johnson has told The Newswire that he's not worried about his opponents, but just wants to get better for A-10 play . Johnson says he tries to schedule "as difficult as possible" of a pre-conference slate, but also doesn't plan to do much scouting on any of the top flight opponents XU will face in the coming weeks, such as LSU, Wake Forest, Texas A&M, and Michigan. "We're more concerned with what we do. We're competing against ourselves", Johnson said.