TUCSON, Ariz. – Arizona beach volleyball head coach Steve Walker has announced the Wildcats schedule for the 2020 season, including nine duals against teams that finished in the Top 20 to close the 2019 season. The season gets underway Feb. 14 with the Red-Blue Scrimmage at Bear Down Beach in Tucson.

"Coming into our fall training segment, it's no secret we brought in the largest recruiting class in program history," Walker said. "As the coaching staff expected, our newcomers and returners meshed really well and we were able to see a good deal of individual and collective improvement throughout the course of fall term."    

Walker, who is entering his seventh season as the head coach at Arizona, is coming off a program record 25 wins last season and a 12th place finish in the final DiG Magazine Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll. The 'Cats have nine letter winners from a year ago back, led by second team All Pac-12 honoree Olivia Hallaran.

"If we want to go deep into postseason play this spring," Walker said, "There is no doubt we are going to have to continue to improve throughout this winter and spring on the areas of the game that are key for success. The good news is, as a staff we know the team is ready, driven and more than able to do just that. We all want to see our seniors go out on the highest of notes and we have all the pieces we need to make a splash nationally.  We simply have to go out and do it."  

The regular season begins Feb. 21-22 when Arizona hosts the Cactus Classic at Bear Down Beach, where the 'Cats will take on Missouri State, San Francisco and Boise State during the two-day event. Both Saturday matches will be televised on Pac-12 Networks. 

The following weekend, the Wildcats will host Colorado Mesa and Washington on Feb. 28 and then take on Stephen F. Austin on Feb. 29 as part of the Arizona Invitational.

The first road trip of the season will send Arizona to Fort Worth, Texas, to take part in the TCU Fight in the Fort tournament against LSU, Missouri State and TCU. Last year, LSU finished third at the NCAA Championship while TCU checked in at No. 17 in the final DiG Magazine Top 20 Poll.

Following a midweek trip to UC Davis for a tri-match against the Aggies and Stephen F. Austin, Arizona returns to Bear Down Beach to host the Wildcat Spring Challenge with matches against Pacific, Utah, Arizona Christian and CSU Northridge on the schedule.

Another midweek tri-match sends the Wildcats to San Luis Obispo for matches against Santa Clara and 2019 NCAA Championship participant Cal Poly, who finished eighth in the final DiG Magazine Top 20 poll to close the 2019 season.

On April 2, nationally ranked Long Beach State will come to Tucson to take on the 'Cats along with Park University.

The home stretch of the regular season begins with a road trip to Palo Alto, California, where six of the Pac-12 schools will converge for the Pac-12 North Invitational. The Wildcats will have matches against USC And Cal on April 4 followed by contests against Washington and Stanford on April 5. All matches will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.

The final regular season tournament sends Arizona just up I-10 to Tempe for the ASU Tournament where they will tangle with Arizona State, Grand Canyon and Arizona Christian on April 10-11.

Senior Day for the Wildcats will be April 16 when the Arizona State Sun Devils pay a visit to Bear Down Beach for a dual that will be televised by Pac-12 Networks. 

The Pac-12 Tournament will take place in Los Angeles on April 23-25 followed by the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship in Gulf Shores, Alabama on May 1-3.

Admission to the Red-Blue Scrimmage and all other home matches will be free.