The Valpo volleyball program is set to play 18 Missouri Valley Conference matches during the spring semester starting in early February, as the conference announced a revamped schedule this week.

With this year’s scheduling format, teams will play back-to-back dates against the same team at the same location. The format retains the full double round-robin schedule, but necessitates travel to only five of the other nine conference schools.

Valpo’s 2020-21 MVC schedule opens up Feb. 7-8 at Missouri State, with the home openers set for Feb. 14-15 against Southern Illinois. Valpo will also host Bradley, UNI and Indiana State, while traveling to Illinois State, Drake and Evansville – the latter closing the regular season March 27-28.

Valpo will take on travel partner Loyola in one match at the ARC and one match in Chicago at dates to be determined. Any non-conference matches will be announced at a future date as well. The MVC Tournament is scheduled for April 1-3 at Illinois State, with eight teams qualifying for the event.