SAN ANTONIO –UTSA volleyball opens the 2017 season on the road as the Roadrunners compete Friday at TCU's Cowtown Classic in Fort Worth.
The Roadrunners will play two matches, beginning the regular season with Coastal Carolina at 11 a.m., and taking on host, TCU, at 6 p.m. to close out the tournament. UTSA's match against the Horned Frogs will be streamed lived on TCU's Frog Vision on gofrogs.com.
Tickets for the tournament are $10 for adults, $5 for youth and $3 for groups of 20 or more. For ticket information, please call 817-257-FROG. Tickets will also be available at the ticket office inside the Rec Center each day.
QUICK HITS
- The UTSA Roadrunners open their 35th season of volleyball and the 16th under head coach Laura Neugebauer-Groff.
- The 2016 edition of UTSA volleyball saw the team finish 20-8 overall and 10-4 in Conference USA; that mark placed the Roadrunners fourth overall among league opponents.
- UTSA holds an all-time record of 626-503 (.554) through 34 full seasons of volleyball.
- Neugebauer-Groff is 277-196 in 15 seasons with the Roadrunners. She holds the most wins as a head coach in UTSA volleyball program history.
- UTSA's 2017 schedule features seven 2016 NCAA Tournament participants.
- The Roadrunner roster features two seniors, four juniors, five sophomores and five freshmen.
SCOUTING COASTAL CAROLINA
- The Chanticleers return seven letter winners from the 2016 squad, who claimed the Sun Belt Conference Championship and finished 28-5 overall.
- Coastal Carolina was voted to defend its Sun Belt title by the league's preseason poll.
- The Chants attack is led by 2017 Sun Belt Preseason Offensive Player of the year Leah Hardeman. Last season, the outside hitter ranked second in the Sun Belt in kills per set, fifth in aces per set and ninth in hitting percentage.
- Coastal Carolina's roster adds two transfers in Leah Levert from Syracuse and Sydney Alvis from UNC Wilmington.
SCOUTING TCU
- The Frogs return 11 letter winners and four starters from the 2016 squad who advanced to its second-straight NCAA tournament and went 15-13 overall.
- Joining the returners will be six newcomers who make up the 2017 class that was ranked No. 24 by prepvolleyball.com to mark the second straight top-25 recruiting class under the helm of Director of Volleyball Jim Kramer.
- TCU's defensive effort is paced by middle blocker Anna Walsh, who named to the Preseason All-Big 12 team. The junior recorded double-digit kills in three matches and finished the season with 72 total blocks and 0.69 blocks per set. Walsh started 22 matches last fall and was good for 2.31 points per set for the team. In Big 12 play in 2016, Walsh finished with 115 kills, 1.85 kills per set and .264 hitting clip to go along with 50 total blocks.
UP NEXT
The Roadrunners return to the court next weekend in the Minnesota's Diet Coke Classic in Minneapolis, where they are set to square off against the Golden Gophers, Tennessee and West Virginia.
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