Follow
For the first time in its program history, Lindenwood will play a match against an EIVA school
Lindenwood announced Friday its 2014 regular season schedule that begins with the team on a two-match East Coast road trip against Sacred Heart and NJIT.
The addition of EIVA teams to the Lions’ schedule follows the program successfully completed its four-year from NAIA to NCAA Division II membership in June.
As the newest member of the MIVA, Lindenwood last year finished its inaugural season in the conference in fifth place and upset Lewis for its first victory against a nationally ranked Division I-II team. The Lions, though, were ineligible for the MIVA Tournament as part of its transition to the NCAA.
Lindenwood has a majority of starters returning for the upcoming season, including All-MIVA outside attacker Colin Hackworth who finished among the conference leaders with a 3.56 kills per game average. In addition, former Clarke and Cal Baptist coach Kris Dorn in August was named the Lions’ new head coach for the upcoming season.
This will be the second time in the team’s 14-year program history that the Lions will travel to the East Coast. Lindenwood in its inaugural East Coast road trip last season went undefeated in three matches against Conference Carolinas teams.
Sacred Heart and NJIT both missed the four-team EIVA Tournament last season for the second consecutive year. The two teams in non-conference play also went a combined 1-9 against the MIVA with NJIT getting the lone victory against IPFW.
With the addition of Lindenwood, seven of the eight MIVA teams have already announced they will play non-conference matches against the EIVA in the upcoming season.
Non-conference matches between the EIVA and MIVA will have increased significance this season with the creation of the men’s volleyball RPI. The NCAA men’s volleyball selection committee announced during the summer that it would use a conference RPI ranking system to determine the two teams that would have to play in the newly created NCAA Tournament play-in match.