MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Faulkner Volleyball announced its 2021 schedule Thursday featuring a trio of non-conference tournaments and the first looks at Talladega in SSAC action. The season's quick turnaround follows a third-place finish in April's conference championship. "Having a traditional year is really exciting," Head Coach Tori Renda said.

Start It Up
The Lady Eagles begin their season on the beach, traveling to West Palm Beach, Fla. to play in the Palm Beach County Sports Commission Volleyball Classic, hosted by Keiser. "I'm really excited about this. It's earlier than I would normally start our match play, but with the NAIA changing some things in 2022, we're going to play as many games as we can this year," Renda said. "The event gives us the ability to play some nationally ranked teams that we normally wouldn't get to see due to restrictions and travel requirements. Given the opportunity to possibly play three top-25 teams in the tournament is going to help test where we are nationally and give us some sight nationally from other teams. It will be a great opportunity for us to play some big games, big volleyball and learn a lot."

Faulkner will battle the hosts, who were undefeated entering the final site of the NAIA National Championship last year, to open the season. Despite facing 122 unique opponents in the program's history, Faulkner will face four new schools on the season and three in West Palm Beach. On the other side of the net will be Bethel (Ind.), Goshen (Ind.) and Life Pacific (Calif.) during the weekend at Keiser. 

Faulkner Hospitality
Faulkner will host the 21st annual Faulkner Invitational August 27 and 28. Mobile, William Carey, Freed-Hardeman, Southeastern, Warner, Tennessee Wesleyan and Southeastern will enter Tine Davis Gymnasium and the Freeman-Harrison Student Multiplex for the event. Faulkner will play four games in the event, two each day, highlighted by Saturday's matchup with Freed-Hardeman. 

"Being able to have the Faulkner Invitational on our campus with that energy, with the student body around and not having to share the stage with nine other sports being active gives us that opportunity to make that home-court stand." Like most things in the Churches of Christ, the ties between the two schools run deep."Freed-Hardeman, which is not only our sister-school rival, but [FHU Head Coach Todd Humphry] was my college coach so we always have fun and have a great match so it's always fun to play them," Renda said.

Georgia Tuneups
The final matches before the conference slate will be a five game swing in the Peach State. The Lady Eagles will play in the TMU Invitational September 3 and 4. The event will begin against the fourth new opponent in Taylor (Ind.) and include matches against Brenau, Fisk and the hosts Truett-McConnell. After the tournament, the Lady Eagles will skip over to Point Sept. 7 for the last match currently scheduled before conference play with a game potentially to be added. "Having the ability to actually have 13 matches under our belt before conference play is huge," Renda said. In comparison, the Lady Eagles played just five matches before league play in the spring and just nine contests outside the SSAC.  "Having the preseason matches with us playing 13 matches and a scrimmage day at Huntingdon where we'll play Division I, Division II and Division III schools, we're going to be ready when conference starts."

SSAC Showdowns
Conference play will be a tale of two halves from a travel perspective for the Lady Eagles. In the 14-match league slate, five of the first seven matches are on the road, including nearly a month between home dates. SSAC play opens with home contests against Brewton-Parker Sept. 17 and Middle Georgia Sept. 18 before hitting the road to new conference foe Talladega and the youngest program Blue Mountain the next weekend. A three-match Gulf Coast swing will wrap up the first half of league play at Loyola, William Carey and Mobile in a five-day stretch. "We're used to [long road stretches]. We have 15 returning players from last year's spring roster when we were on the road so much. It felt like every time we turned around we're getting back on a bus. Five games over two weeks, we can handle that," Renda said. 

This could set Faulkner up nicely for a push down the stretch with five of the last seven at home. "[The schedule can be a] huge advantage since it is after midterms and at that point we start fatiguing. It's a long season to be honest. To get all the way to the final site, you're playing into the first week of December so to be at home right before a conference tournament is huge for us because we can rest, we can recover, we can sleep in our own beds and it just gives us a huge advantage." Ten days after the road trip, Faulkner will welcome 2020 tournament runner-up Loyola and 2020 regular season champion William Carey Oct. 15 and 16. The following week, Faulkner welcomes Talladega for the first time as an SSAC opponent Friday night and Blue Mountain Saturday before its final two road games Halloween weekend at Brewton-Parker and Middle Georgia, The Lady Eagles wrap up the regular season at home against the 2020 tournament champions Mobile Nov. 4.

Crosstown Home-and-Home
Breaking up the league slate will be contests against in-town foe Huntington. The Hawks enter Tine Davis Gymnasium Sept. 21 with the return trip set for Oct. 19. These will be the 28th and 29th meeting all-time between the two schools with Faulkner holding a 17-10 advantage and riding a 13 match win streak dating to 2005. 

The full schedule with match times can be found on FaulknerEagles.com