Olmstead releases 2018 men’s volleyball schedule

PROVO, Utah – BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead released the 2018 men’s volleyball schedule Wednesday, getting set for another season of national powerhouse competition.

"Each new season brings about new opportunities as well as a renewed excitement and energy,” Olmstead said. “With the addition of a newly configured conference, we’ve done our best to schedule opponents across the country that will push our team to compete and improve as the season unfolds. We feel we have a great slate of home and away competition that will do just that. We’ll miss the 'old' MPSF but look forward to the new additions in conference.”

Beginning in 2018, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation will consist of BYU, Concordia-Irvine, Grand Canyon, Pepperdine, Stanford, UCLA and USC. The other former league squads will play in the newly created Big West Conference for men’s volleyball.

Twelve of BYU’s 2018 opponents finished the 2017 season ranked in the Top-15 of the final AVCA Coaches’ Poll, while four played in the six-team berth NCAA tournament alongside the Cougars.

BYU begins the season at home, hosting Loyola-Chicago and Lewis on Jan. 5-6. UC Irvine will also travel to Provo to begin the season against these same two teams.

The Cougars then hit the road for a match against Ball State on Jan. 12 and a national championship rematch at Ohio State on Jan. 13.

BYU returns home to face Barton twice (Jan. 19-20) before traveling to UC Irvine (Jan. 26-27) for a pair of matches.

The Cougars are home again for two matches against UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 2-3. The team will follow that up with a match at UC San Diego on Feb. 8.

League play then begins in the newly configured MPSF with a match at USC on Feb. 10. BYU stays on the road for more matches at Grand Canyon on Feb. 15 and at Concordia-Irvine on Feb. 17.

The Cougars then spend a week of competition against Stanford, first at Maples Pavilion on Feb. 21 and then at the Smith Fieldhouse on Feb. 24.

The team remains at home for matches against Pepperdine (Mar. 1) and UCLA (Mar. 3) before heading to the islands for matches against Penn State (Mar. 8), Lewis (Mar. 9) and host Hawai’i (Mar. 10) in the Outrigger Resorts Invitational.

BYU returns home for three more matches against USC on Mar. 15, Concordia-Irvine on Mar. 29 and Grand Canyon on Mar. 31.

The Cougars play their final regular-season matches on the road, traveling to Pepperdine on Apr. 5 and UCLA on Apr. 7 to close out conference play.

The MPSF Tournament, with locations and times yet-to-be-determined, will be played beginning the following week.

View the complete 2018 men’s volleyball schedule on the schedule page.