July 8, 2005
With just seven weeks to go until the start of the George Mason women's volleyball season, the 2005 schedule has been unveiled with 18 Colonial Athletic Association matches and seven non-conference matches comprising the slate.
The Patriots will open action at home on August 27 when they host Georgetown in a Saturday evening match. That will be Mason's only tune-up prior to the Brion's Grille/Patriot Invitational which takes place on the Friday and Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Mason will welcome Loyola (Baltimore), UMBC, Seton Hall, Cal Poly and Texas Christian to Linn Memorial Gymnasium for the two-day 10-match event. The Patriots will play the final match on September 2, hosting TCU at 8 p.m. Mason will take on Loyola on Saturday at 3 p.m. and Cal Poly at 8 p.m.
Mason will then dive right into conference action with a trip to Hofstra on September 9 and the squad's first-ever CAA meeting with Northeastern, a road match on September 11. The following weekend, Mason will play its final tournament of the regular season, playing at the James Madison Tournament on September 16 and 17. The Patriots open that tournament with CAA match against JMU and follow that with matches against UMES and Iona.
Mason will play its final non-conference match and its only weekday match on September 20 when the Patriots travel to George Washington for a Tuesday night match at 7 p.m. Just three days later, Mason will face Georgia State for the first time in conference action as the Patriots host the CAA newcomer on the 23rd.
Other highlights on the schedule include the first full weekend in October when Mason hosts Towson on the 7th and Delaware on the 8th. Both those schools were among the four to compete in the CAA Tournament last year, along with Mason and Hofstra. The 2005 regular season schedule concludes with weekend matches at Delaware and Towson on November 11 and 12.
The CAA Tournament will begin on November 18 and it will be hosted by the regular season champion. Mason has appeared in all 21 CAA women's volleyball tournaments.
