The Missouri Valley Conference has announced the 2021 schedules for women’s volleyball, with the season to be played in the spring semester due to the postponement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fall athletics for every Missouri Valley Conference school are expected to be played in the spring semester, along with football, wrestling, men’s and women’s basketball, along with any other fall sport.

The women’s volleyball schedule is scheduled to begin on Feb. 7 and will conclude on March 28. The MVC tournament is slated to be played from April 1-3, hosted by Illinois State University. Regular-season games are scheduled to be played in pairs on back-to-back days, with eight matches on Sundays, seven on Mondays and one on Saturday. The conference schedule for the Panthers will begin on Sunday Feb. 7 through Monday the 8 at the University of Evansville. Their home opener will be the following week of Sunday, Feb. 14 and Monday the 15 against Missouri State, before a two-game set against Southern Illinois on the road in Carbondale, Ill. the following week.

UNI’s remaining home games will be against Indiana State on Feb. 28 and March 1, Illinois State March 7-8 and against Loyola March 21-22. Their final regular-season set will be on the road against Bradley on March 27-28 before the MVC tournament begins on April 1.

Head coach Bobbi Petersen will be at the helm for her 21st season. She has led UNI to 15 NCAA tournament appearances, nine regular-season conference titles and nine MVC tournament championships. The Panthers will be looking to replace a large portion of their starting lineup from a year ago, following the departures of Karli Taylor, Abbi Staack and Rachel Koop.