Princeton University Athletics
Long Homestand, New EIVA Alignment Highlight Release Of 2012 Schedule
November 03, 2011 | Men's Volleyball
With a new-look EIVA regular season structure and a long midseason homestand, there are plenty of intriguing features about the 2012 Princeton men's volleyball schedule.
Princeton will be part of the new EIVA, which will include six Division I programs. Much like many of the Ivy League sports, teams will be paired as travel partners and compete twice per league weekend. Princeton and George Mason will be one tandem, while the other two will be Penn State-St. Francis and Harvard-Sacred Heart.
Unlike past years, there won't be two divisions and an eight-team postseason. Instead, only the top four from the EIVA will reach the championship weekend, which will be hosted by the top seed.
"We are very excited about the new makeup of the EIVA and the new playoff format," head coach Sam Shweisky said. "With only the top four teams advancing to the playoffs, every league match will carry a lot of importance, which should make for some very intense matches."
As usual, Princeton will open its season in California with a trio of matches, including the Jan. 30 season opener at Cal-Baptist. The Tigers will open the EIVA season Feb. 10 with a match at Sacred Heart, and it will have it first league match with Harvard the following afternoon at 1 p.m.
The Tigers will make their home debut Feb. 28 against Rutgers, and that will open a stretch of 12 home dates in a stretch of 13 matches. Princeton will play each of its five EIVA home matches in March, including a March 30 date against Penn state.
The EIVA postseason will open Thursday, April 26, with the championship match scheduled for Saturday, April 28. The winner of that match will have one of the four tickets to the NCAA Championships, held May 3-5 at USC.