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Clarkson Volleyball to take on seven ranked opponents in 2013

Posted 7/27/13

A year after reaching the NCAA Quarterfinals, falling to the eventual national champions in the Elite 8, the Clarkson University Volleyball team will look to challenge itself with its most difficult …

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Clarkson Volleyball to take on seven ranked opponents in 2013

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A year after reaching the NCAA Quarterfinals, falling to the eventual national champions in the Elite 8, the Clarkson University Volleyball team will look to challenge itself with its most difficult slate of games in program history. Along with playing the toughest competition available in the region, the Golden Knights will make two lengthy road trips that will have them sharing the court with several national title contenders, a position the Green and Gold hope to be in once again at season's end.

Over the course of two-plus months the Knights will play in a couple key regional tournaments, but even loftier heights are being attempted as Clarkson will travel to California to play several top opponents from that region at the La Verne Tournament. A few weeks later, Clarkson will return to the site of the 2012 NCAA Quarterfinals in Michigan to take on three more ranked teams. Though the conference champions will finally earn an automatic qualifier in the Liberty League, the Golden Knights are hoping that a gaudy won-lost record with a strong schedule will allow them to gain an at-large bid just in case the team falters in the league's post-season tournament.

Clarkson will open the year in Cortland, NY at the Red Dragon Invitational, facing a pair of regionally-ranked teams in Richard Stockton and Buffalo State, but also taking on non-region opponents in 11th-ranked Mount Union and 24th-ranked Juniata. It's a tough way to start the season, but head coach Johan Dulfer would not want it any other way.

"This year's schedule is an effort to play the best teams we can find, wherever we can find them," Dulfer said. "You can choose to hide and play only teams you see year in and year out, or you can choose to go out and find the most difficult competition you can find and challenge them. We felt like that is what we had to do for us to continue the climb of our program and for our players to get better. They say that to be the best you've got to play the best. Well, this season we'll definitely play some of the very best."

In California, the Knights will take on their highest-ranked (pre-season) opponent in Elmhurst College (#4), a team that they will see again a few weeks later in Holland, MI. Joining Elmhurst as Clarkson foes in Michigan will be seventh-ranked Hope College and 14th-ranked University of Chicago. Stuck between the two tough tournaments is an equally difficult mid-week opponent in 23rd-ranked Cortland, a team that has gained the top spot in the region for two years running.

Coach Dulfer hopes that the tough schedule will prepare the Knights well for Liberty League play, a regular-season slate that is 12 matches sprinkled throughout the rest of the schedule. Before Clarkson hopes to challenge for the conference title in the annual post-season tourament, now in its third season, the Knights will have one final test in the New York Regional Challenge during the first weekend of November in Rochester, NY.

The travel will be extensive in 2013, including one cross-country flight and another near-change in time zones in Western Michigan, but Clarkson will also host the Golden Knight Invitational in mid-October, a two-day event with only center-court matches designed for maximum exposure and attention at Alumni Gymnasium.