2019 Sun Belt Volleyball News and Notes:
Standings | Composite Schedule | Stats

AROUND #SUNBELTVB
• Sun Belt Conference volleyball opens the first week of the 2019 season with all 12 teams in action in 37 matches. Five matchups are scheduled for live coverage on ESPN+ to go along with one on Pac-12 Network Plus and one on ACC Network Plus.
 
• Texas State was among the teams receiving votes in American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I Preseason Poll, marking a first in program history. The Bobcats enter this season coming off a historic 2018 campaign, earning their first NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship victory, first Sun Belt regular-season title and second Sun Belt Tournament title.
 
• Two Sun Belt teams face nationally-ranked foes in Week 1 action as Texas State hosts No. 14 Southern California and Appalachian State travels to take on No. 24 on Friday, Aug. 30. The Bobcats also play host to Northern Iowa, receiving votes in the initial AVCA Coaches Poll.
 
• The preseason predictions, as voted on by the league’s 12 head coaches, featured Coastal Carolina and Texas State as East and West Division favorites and 12 All-Sun Belt performers from a season ago. The Bobcats swept the preseason individual honors with senior outside hitter/setter Cheyenne Huskey tabbed Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, senior defensive specialist Micah Dinwiddie voted Preseason Defensive Player of the Year and sophomore setter Emily DeWalt selected Preseason Setter of the Year.
 
• Four head coaches are making their Sun Belt debuts this week – Santiago Restrepo at Arkansas State, Chad Willis at Georgia Southern, Charlie Olson at ULM and Alexis Meeks at South Alabama.
 
• Texas State head coach Karen Chisum is entering her 40th season and Little Rock head coach Van Compton is entering her 32nd season as head coaches. Compton was hired in 1988 to restart the Trojans' volleyball program and is embarking on her 28th season leading Little Rock as a member of the Sun Belt. Chisum sits five wins shy of recording her 900th career victory. With that milestone victory, Chisum will become the seventh NCAA Division I volleyball head coach to reach the 900-win plateau.
 
• With one final year of eligibility remaining, Little Rock's Anna Hurlburt – a back-to-back Sun Belt champion as a forward on the women's basketball team – is spending her senior year of athletics competition as a middle blocker on the Trojans' women's volleyball team.
 
• Appalachian State features a pair with the same first name poised to eclipse four-digit milestones this season. Junior libero/defensive specialist Emma Reilly enters the season 94 digs shy of 1,000 for her career and senior outside hitter Emma Longley enters the season 124 kills shy of reaching 1,000 for her career.
 
• Coastal Carolina's roster features nine newcomers and a pair of 2019 Preseason All-Sun Belt and 2018 All-Sun Belt first-team selections in junior outside hitter Kyla Manning and sophomore outside hitter Anett Nemeth.
 
• Four Sun Belt teams – Appalachian State, Georgia State, ULM and Troy – received AVCA Team Academic Awards for the 2018-19 academic year. The award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the school year by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale. 
 
• The conference's first volleyball weekly awards (Offensive, Defensive, Setter and Freshman of the Week) will be announced on Monday, Sept. 2.
 
• The 2019 Sun Belt Women’s Volleyball Championship, hosted by Texas State, is set for Nov. 21-24 at Strahan Arena at the University Events Center in San Marcos, Texas.
 
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Friday, August 30
1-Arkansas State vs. Milwaukee, 9:30 a.m.
2-Little Rock vs. Montana State, 10 a.m.
3-Western Michigan vs. South Alabama, 10 a.m.
4-Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. UTA, 10 a.m.
5-Southeastern Louisiana vs. Troy, 10:30 a.m.
6-Appalachian State at Arizona (Pac-12 Network Plus), 11 a.m.
Liberty at Texas State (ESPN+), Noon
7-Georgia Southern vs. Campbell, Noon
8-Arkansas-Pine Bluff vs. ULM, 1 p.m.
9-Incarnate Word at Louisiana (ESPN+), 1:30 p.m.
10-Loyola (Md.) vs. Coastal Carolina, 2:30 p.m.
3-South Alabama vs. Northern Kentucky, 3:30 p.m.
1-Arkansas State vs. North Alabama, 4 p.m.
4-UTA vs. LSU, 4:30 p.m.
6-Samford vs. Appalachian State, 5:30 p.m.
7-Georgia Southern at Mercer, 6 p.m.
11-Western Carolina at Georgia State, 6 p.m.
9-UTEP at Louisiana, 6:30 p.m.
2-Little Rock at Arkansas, 7 p.m.
8-ULM at New Orleans, 7 p.m.
Southern California at Texas State (ESPN+), 7 p.m.
5-Troy at Jacksonville State (ESPN+), 7 p.m.
 
Saturday, August 31
7-Georgia Southern vs. Nicholls, 10 a.m.
3-South Alabama vs. Purdue Fort Wayne, 10 a.m.
11-Lamar at Georgia State, 11 a.m.
5-East Tennessee State vs. Troy, 11 a.m.
6-Loyola Marymount vs. Appalachian State, 11 a.m.
10-Coastal Carolina vs. Furman, 11:30 a.m.
8-North Dakota vs. ULM, Noon
9-Tulane at Louisiana, 12:30 p.m.
4-UTA at Houston, 12:30 p.m.
2-Northwestern State vs. Little Rock, 1 p.m.
1-Arkansas State at Belmont (ESPN+), 2 p.m.
10-Coastal Carolina at Virginia (ACC Network Extra), 5:30 p.m.
11-Fordham at Georgia State, 6 p.m.
Northern Iowa at Texas State, 7 p.m.
 
Monday, September 2
ULM at Grambling State, 6 p.m.

All Times Central and Subject to Change

Key:
1-Bruiser Showcase, Nashville, Tenn.
2-Arkansas Classic, Fayetteville, Ark.
3-Purdue Fort Wayne Invitational Presented by Hyatt Place, Fort Wayne, Ind.
4-Flo Hyman Collegiate Cup, Houston, Texas
5-Jax State Invitational, Jacksonville, Ala.
6-Catcus Classic, Tucson, Ariz.
7-Mercer Bears Classic, Macon, Ga.
8-UNO Invitational I, New Orleans, La.
9-Doubletree Classic, Lafayette, La.
10-Cavalier Classic, Charlottesville, Va.
11-Georgia State Invitational, Atlanta, Ga.