STATESBORO – Tournaments at West Virginia, Minnesota and Wake Forest along with the GATA Challenge in Hanner Fieldhouse and nine home Sun Belt matches highlight the 2018 Georgia Southern volleyball schedule, announced today by head coach Dustin Wood.

"We're very excited about this year's schedule," said Georgia Southern coach Dustin Wood. "We have a good mix of matches this year that will challenge us and make us better as a program. We get to mix it up with the SEC, ACC, Big 12 and the Big 10. We also have some good non-conference matches scheduled with other mid-major opponents that will help us prepare for the meat of our Sun Belt schedule."

The Eagles open the campaign at West Virginia August 24-25, where they face Wright State and UConn along with the host Mountaineers. North Dakota State, Arkansas and Minnesota make up the Diet Coke Classic in Minneapolis the following weekend, and the Eagles open their home slate against North Florida Sept. 4.

Following the single match against the Ospreys, GS travels to the Wake Forest Invitational Sept. 7-8 along with Elon and Akron. The Eagles host their annual event, the GATA Challenge, Sept. 13-15, to round out the tournament portion of their schedule.

GS plays home-and-home series with all five of their Sun Belt Conference East Division counterparts – Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Troy, South Alabama and Georgia State. The Eagles open SBC play with a pair of home matches against Appalachian State and Coastal Carolina Sept. 21-22. 

The Eagles square off against teams from the West Division – Louisiana, ULM, Texas State, UTA, Little Rock and Arkansas State once. Matches against the Texas schools and Arkansas schools will be in Hanner Fieldhouse, while GS takes on Louisiana and ULM on the road.

"We are very excited to have more home matches in conference play this year," said Wood. "We love the energy inside Hanner Fieldhouse with our home fans, which is a huge advantage for us.  We are really looking forward to the upcoming season with some new faces to help us move forward as a program."

GS returns four starters, including first-team all-conference selection Lauren Reichard, and 12 letterwinners to the 2018 team. 

Season tickets are $40, and single match tickets are $5-8 and $3-5 for youth ages 4-12. Group tickets for groups of 15 or more are available for $3 each and must be purchased prior to game day.