Raiders Host 11 Home Matches at Cotterell Court
Colgate volleyball head coach Ryan Baker unveiled the Raiders’ challenging 2017 schedule Thursday. The Raiders will host 11 matches at Cotterell Court, beginning with the Colgate Invitational in mid-September.
“I feel we have a really balanced schedule for 2017,” said Baker. “With the graduation of three key seniors, we are going to go through some growing pains as we try to figure out how to compete and recover. I feel this schedule has the right mixture of opponents as we prepare for the league portion of our schedule.”
The Raiders open up their 2017 campaign with three matches at the Syracuse Tournament on August 25-26. Colgate faces Niagara and Siena before closing out the weekend against the host Orange. Colgate travels to the Albany Invitational the following weekend to take on a trio of strong opponents in Temple, Albany and St. John’s. All three teams finished the 2016 season with winning records.
With five players on the 2017 roster from the state of Texas, Colgate will head to the Lone Star state on Sept. 8-9 to compete in the Stephen F. Austin Tournament. The Raiders are set to take on Tulsa, Arkansas-Little Rock and host Stephen F. Austin.
The Raiders make their home debut at Cotterell Court on Sept. 15 when Colgate welcomes Stony Brook in the Colgate Invitational opener. The three-match tournament continues against La Salle and Cornell Sept. 16.
Colgate then turns its attention to Patriot League play, which opens up at Lehigh on Sept. 22. The league schedule features a home-and-home format with each of the eight teams. The four-team Patriot League Championship is set for Nov. 18-19 and is hosted by the regular season champion. The winner will receive the league’s automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.
The Raiders are coming off a 2016 campaign that saw Colgate finish 18-11 overall and 13-3 in Patriot League play en route to a league championship appearance. Colgate returns 14 letterwinners from last season and welcomes four talented newcomers.