TOLEDO, Ohio – Fresh off a 20-win season, the Toledo volleyball team announced its 2022 schedule on Tuesday. This fall's schedule features eight Top 100 RPI opponents and 12 home matches in Savage Arena.
"This schedule is both challenging and inspiring for our program," head coach Jason Oliver said. "Jumping up a level of competition is the next step in our growth as a program, and we will need to really play well in the early part of the season in order to continue our winning ways. This schedule has it all. It's exactly what we want coming off the year that we had in 2021. I fully expect us to attack this schedule with more energy and focus than we have showed in the past. That will allow us to have some good competition and some great team experiences on the road this year."
Following an exhibition match against Findlay at home on Saturday, Aug. 20, the Rockets will open their regular season with a tournament at Arizona State the following weekend. They'll open with a match against the host Sun Devils on Friday, Aug. 26 and face Northern Iowa later that day before playing CSU Bakersfield on Saturday, Aug. 27.
Toledo will also participate in non-conference tournaments hosted by 2021 NCAA Tournament teams Michigan and Western Kentucky. The tournament at Michigan will begin Friday, Sept. 2 and will see UT face the Wolverines as well as Loyola Chicago and Morehead State. The following weekend, the Rockets will head to Bowling Green, Ky. for WKU's tournament where they will also play Northern Kentucky and Austin Peay.
The first home contest of the season will be Thursday, Sept. 15 against Purdue Fort Wayne. That will precede Toledo's home tournament by one day with the Toledo Challenge set to be played Sept. 16-17 and feature PFW, Eastern Illinois, and Duquesne.
Mid-American Conference play starts the following weekend on Friday-Saturday, Sept. 23-24 with a pair of matches at Eastern Michigan. The Rockets' home conference opener is slated for the following weekend against Central Michigan.
Toledo's other home conference opponents are Buffalo (Oct. 7), Akron (Oct. 8), Ball State (Oct. 19), Northern Illinois (Oct. 21-22), and Ohio (Nov. 4-5). UT's other road MAC road trips feature Western Michigan (Oct. 14-15), Bowling Green (Oct. 28), Miami (Oct. 29), Kent State (Nov. 11-12), and Ball State (Nov. 16).
The 2022 MAC Tournament will be held Sunday-Tuesday, Nov. 20-22 at the location of the regular-season champion.
Toledo returns First-Team All-MAC honoree Taylor Alt and second-teamer Sina Uluave, among others, from last year's 20-win squad. The Rockets earned a berth in the MAC Tournament for the first time since 2016 and played in a postseason tournament for the first time in program history. UT played in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC), advancing to the second round.
