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The wait for the start of the 2022 college men’s volleyball season will be a little bit longer.
UC Irvine announced Monday it has opted to cancel its non-conference road matches this weekend against Loyola and Lewis because of the surge in coronavirus cases with the Omicron variant.
The match-up between No. 7 Loyola and No. 12 UC Irvine on New Year’s Day was slated to be the nation’s first match of the upcoming regular season. The Anteaters also were slated to close out their two-match Midwest road trip against the defending MIVA champions No. 8 Flyers on Sunday.
The amount of daily new positive coronavirus cases has steadily increased in December throughout the United States, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nation’s seven-day average for daily new positive cases as of Sunday has climbed to 206,577 – the highest seven-day average since January.
UC Irvine in its announcement canceling the two matches stated it made the decision “in an abundance of caution for the well-being of the student-athletes and staff.”
Both of these non-conference matches will not be rescheduled.
UC Irvine will now open its season with matches against Lindenwood on Jan. 7 and Stanford on Jan. 8.
Loyola is slated to play a two-match road series against defending NCAA champions Hawai’i starting Jan. 5, while Lews will travel to Lincoln Memorial for its season opener on Jan. 7.