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St. Francis for just the third time in its program’s history will travel to the West Coast.
The Red Flashes last week released their 2014 regular season that is highlighted with a non-conference match against Cal Baptist during a mid-season West Coast road trip.
This will be the first meeting between St. Francis and Cal Baptist, which in 2013 completed its transition to NCAA Division II and its inaugural season in the MPSF. In addition, it will be the first time for the Red Flashes to travel to California since competing at the 2010 Active Ankle Tournament at Long Beach State.
St. Francis finished last season in fifth place in the EIVA and missed the four-team conference tournament for the second consecutive year. However, the Red Flashes have a majority of their starters returning for the upcoming season — including First-Team All-EIVA outside attacker Logan Patterson who led the conference with a 3.74 kills per game average.
Cal Baptist last year ended the MPSF regular season in sixth place but was ineligible for the conference tournament as part of its transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II.
This will be one of two non-conference matches for the Lancers against the EIVA in the upcoming year. Cal Baptist will also play Princeton in opening weeks of the 2014 season.
The St. Francis and Cal Baptist match on March 4 will be the final match of the Red Flashes’ road trip. St. Francis will also open the West Coast road trip with a match against Concordia-Irvine, an NAIA team, on March 3.
The Red Flashes enter the 2014 season having never defeated an MPSF opponent in their program’s 31-year history but have come close to upsetting Long Beach State and UC San Diego in recent years.