For months, the DU volleyball and men’s and women’s soccer teams practiced and prepared for a season with no known start date. In late October, they got to breathe a collective sigh of relief when the details for their upcoming schedules were released by the Summit League. The announcement gives teams a more clear vision of what their delayed campaigns will look like in terms of who they play and when and how the season will be structured.
The volleyball team will play a 16 game season beginning Jan. 11 and concluding on March 27. The league’s nine members will play a double-round robin format with each team receiving one bye during the spring season. Teams will play the same opponent twice at one site. Denver will exclusively play teams in the Summit League, including new-to-the-conference University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC), as opposed to normal competition where they would play a handful of out-of-conference teams at the beginning of the season. This year, a four-team Summit League championship will take place April 2-3 in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The volleyball team is coming off of a 23-9 record last season as they advanced to the NCAA National Tournament, falling to Stanford in the first round.
DU volleyball will kick off the season on Jan. 31 against Omaha in Hamilton Gymnasium. The full schedule can be viewed here.
In men’s soccer, Summit League teams will play a 10-match regular season starting on Feb. 13 and concluding on April 10. All six men’s soccer teams will play a double-round robin format during the spring season with a match at each respective school’s travel partner to open and close the season. In between, teams will play the same opponent twice at one site with three bye weeks and a make-up week built into the schedule. The Joint Council of the Summit League agreed to grant the league’s automatic bid to the regular-season champion and forego a championship in the spring.
Denver men’s soccer will travel to play Omaha for the first game of the season on Feb. 13 before completing the rest of their schedule.
Last season, the team finished with a 6-12-3 record, placing them in third place in the conference.
The women’s soccer team will play a slightly longer season than the men due to having three more teams in their conference, with a 16 game season beginning on Feb. 12 and finishing on April 11. The Summit League’s nine members will play a double-round robin format with each team receiving one bye during the spring season. Teams will play the same opponent twice at one site. A four-team championship will take place April 15-17 in Omaha, Neb. Last season, Denver came out on top in the Summit League with a 12-4-4 record, including a 7-0-1 conference record. As the reigning conference champion, DU retains the right to host the 2021 championship.
The team will kick off the season against Western Illinois in Macomb, Ill. The remaining schedule can be viewed here.
Overall, the newly released schedules provide players and fans alike a reason to get excited as games are finally on the calendar.
