After the COVID-19 pandemic pushed their season back to the spring and with a difficult Big Ten-only schedule in the toughest conference in the nation awaiting them, head coach Shane Davis and Northwestern volleyball will finally get back on the court Friday night.
A two-game weekend series against Rutgers begins a 22-game gauntlet in which the Wildcats will face each conference opponent aside from Penn State and Ohio State in the same format, either staying home or traveling for a pair of weekend matches against the same team in each of the next 11 weeks. For Northwestern coming off of a promising, if slightly disappointing, 14-18 (5-15 B1G) finish in 2019, the star-studded schedule offers a chance to push toward their first NCAA Tournament berth in a decade in head coach Shane Davis’ fifth season with the program.