Indiana State Women's Swimming & Diving, under the direction of first-year head coach Matt Leach announced today its schedule for the historic first year of competition in 2016-17.
“We are excited to announce our program’s inaugural schedule and look forward to a very challenging road ahead," Leach said. "Putting together this schedule, we wanted to challenge our very young student-athletes as we face opponents in the Big Ten, ACC and Missouri Valley Conference. The challenge when building a program is to help our student-athletes grow in the classroom and in the pool. I believe this schedule will help our team mature quickly as we face very strong opponents in dual meets and invites.”
Following an intrasquad meet on Friday, September 30 at 2:30 p.m. (ET) inside the Vigo County Aquatic Center, Indiana State opens their season on Oct. 7 with the Notre Dame Relays. The following day the Sycamores will go head to head with the Fighting Irish at 11:00 a.m.
After a couple more weeks of training ISU will travel to West Lafayette, Ind. on Oct. 22 to compete in the Indiana Intercollegiate Meet hosted by Purdue which begins at Noon.
The Sycamores' home slate then begins and the competition this season includes all of their Missouri Valley Conference match-ups taking place at the Vigo County Aquatic Center.
“Scheduling three Missouri Valley Conference opponents will be a very good test as we try and climb the MVC standings," Leach commented. "Opening up with a very strong Illinois State program will be our first conference opponent and our first home dual meet at the Vigo County Aquatic Center. The other two strong MVC opponents that we will face are Evansville and the defending MVC Champions Southern Illinois. These MVC dual meets will challenge our overall determination and resolve to continue to develop as a program and staff. We are looking forward to these challenges and want to welcome our MVC opponents to the Vigo County Aquatic Center and to Terre Haute."
On Oct. 28 the Sycamores host their first ever home dual meet when the Illinois State Redbirds visit at 7:00 p.m. Illinois is the next opponent to travel to the Vigo County Aquatics Center to face off with ISU at 1:00 p.m. on Nov. 5.
On Nov.12 the Sycamores welcome Evansville and Rose Hulman for a double dual meet at 1:00 p.m. This meet will be held during the program's alumni weekend.
Next on the schedule for the Sycamores is the Bearcat Invitational in Cincinnati, Ohio. This meet will take place from Nov. 17 through Nov. 19. The following two meets are at home as they welcome Butler on Jan. 13 at 7:00 p.m., followed by Ball State and Eastern Illinois on Jan. 20 at 7:00 p.m. ISU will then take on IUPUI in Indianapolis, Ind. for their final road meet of the regular season on Jan. 21 at 2:00 p.m.
The final home match up for the Sycamores is a dual meet with Southern Illinois on Jan. 27 at 7:00 p.m. The MVC Swimming and Diving Championships will be held Feb. 15-18 at the University of Iowa. The NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships will be at IUPUI from Mar. 15-18.
Leach is very thankful for all of the support from other coaches around the state as well as from Indiana State University.
“Scheduling opponents as the 'new kids on the block' can be difficult because teams are normally set on who they swim and when they schedule each other from year to year," Leach commented. "Having great coaches around the state and region have helped us solidify this schedule. Coach Mike Litzinger at Notre Dame, Coach Susan Novitsky at Illinois, Coach Keith Crawford at Rose-Hulman and all the MVC Coaches have been great to work with on scheduling. I look forward to all of our dual meets and I hope to see as many Sycamore fans in the stands as possible!”
