July 5, 2012

OXFORD, Miss. – The Ole Miss volleyball team will play a 29-match schedule this fall that includes the Rebels’ annual home tournament with the Magnolia Invitational and a 10-game home slate against Southeastern Conference foes, head coach Joe Getzin announced on Thursday.

The Rebels will kick-off the season on the road at a pair of tournaments hosted by the University of Miami (Fla.) and Xavier University before returning home to host the 12th annual Magnolia Invitational. Ole Miss will then return to the road to start conference play with a pair of road games as a part of the league’s 20-match schedule.

Admission to all matches is free to the public and all contests are played at the Gillom Sports Center on campus of the University of Mississippi.

Ole Miss will open the 2012 season on Friday, August 24, with its first contest at the Hurricane Invitational where the Rebels and host Miami Hurricanes will be the marquee matchup in the first day of action at 6 p.m. CT. The Rebels will then return to action for two matches on Saturday against Samford and Wofford to close out the weekend tournament at 9 a.m. CT and 3 p.m. CT, respectively.

The second weekend of play will see Ole Miss again play on the road, traveling to Xavier University for a weekend tournament on August 31 and September 1. The Rebels will take on Marquette University at 9 a.m. CT on Friday before closing out day one action against host Xavier at 6 p.m. CT.  Ole Miss will then close out the tournament at 1 p.m. CT on Saturday against Tennessee Tech, coached by former Ole Miss head coach John Blair.

Ole Miss will then return home for the first home matches of the season at the Magnolia Invitational on September 7-8. It will be the 12th consecutive year for Ole Miss to host the tournament. The Rebels will play two games on the first day of action, facing Alabama A&M at 1:30 p.m. before facing Rice at 7 p.m. Ole Miss will then face North Dakota at 1 p.m. on Saturday to close out the weekend event.

The Rebels then return to the road to open Southeastern Conference play in a 20-match schedule that is staggered with Ole Miss playing some teams twice, while facing other teams only once on the season. Teams the Rebels will see in home-and-home action this season include: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas A&M. Ole Miss will only face division rivals Auburn and LSU once on the season, and see Eastern Division foes Georgia and Tennessee only once.

Ole Miss opens SEC play with a pair of matches at the league’s two newest members with contests at Texas A&M (Sept. 14) and Missouri (Sept. 16) before returning home to host Mississippi State (Sept. 21). The Rebels will then go back on the road for tilts at Alabama (Sept. 28) and South Carolina (Sept. 30).

The month of October sees the Rebels return home for five of the seven matches played that month, beginning with Kentucky (Oct. 5) and Arkansas (Oct. 7). Ole Miss travels to face Florida (Oct. 12) and Georgia (Oct. 14) the next weekend before closing out the month with three straight home contests. The Rebels will host Missouri (Oct. 19), South Carolina (Oct. 21) and Auburn (Oct. 28) to end October.

Ole Miss will head back out on the road the next weekend to face Kentucky (Nov. 2) and LSU (Nov. 4) before coming back home to host Eastern Division powers Tennessee (Nov. 9) and Florida (Nov. 11). Contests at Mississippi State (Nov. 16) and Arkansas (Nov. 18) close out the road schedule for the Rebels before home matches against Alabama (Nov. 23) and Texas A&M (Nov. 25) finish off the regular season.