SAN ANTONIO — UTSA will kick-off its 34th season since its inception in 1983 this Friday, Aug. 26, when the Roadrunners open the 2016 campaign at the SMU Doubletree Classic.
The Roadrunners will face a pair of opponents on Friday with Little Rock at 10 a.m. and host SMU at 7 p.m. UTSA will then close out opening weekend with Montana on Saturday, Aug. 27, at 12 p.m.
UTSA will face familiar competition against SMU after last facing the Mustangs last season. SMU holds a 7-3 series advantage over UTSA. The Roadrunners have faced Little Rock and Montana only once in program history with UTSA coming out on top against the Trojans back in 1996.
"We are obviously very excited for the start of the season to be here. It's always fun when we start playing someone on the other side of the net instead of ourselves," said head volleyball coach Laura Neugebauer-Groff.
"The alumni match this past weekend gave us the opportunity to evaluate ourselves a bit, but we cannot do that fully until we see live action. We've prepared for this weekend like we do every opponent. It doesn't matter who the competition is; it's a matter of us being prepared to be the best we can be."
A total of 13 matches, including an exhibition match against the Shandong Junior Women's Provincial Team on Tuesday, Aug. 30, will lead up to the Roadrunners' Conference USA slate scheduled to begin at home on Sept. 25 against Southern Miss.
UTSA finished 24-9 a year ago and fell to defending C-USA regular season and tournament champion WKU in the finals match of the conference tournament held in the Alamo City.
The Roadrunners return five of its starters from the 2015 season, including two-time first-team All-Conference USA selection and AVCA All-Region honoree Dajana Boskovic. The senior outside hitter led the team with an NCAA 14th-best 4.53 kills per set and averaged 2.79 digs and 0.80 blocks per frame.
The C-USA coaches recognized Boskovic on the preseason team, along with junior Marijeta Runjic. The Croatia native averaged a team second-best 2.98 kills per set and contributed 0.44 digs and 0.60 blocks per set.
