PITTSBURG — The Pittsburg State University volleyball team will open the 2021 spring season with two matches at John Lance Arena/Whetzel Court Saturday (Feb. 20).
 
The Gorillas will take on Washburn at 10 a.m. and Northwest Missouri at 6:30 p.m. There will be additional matches throughout the day with NWMSU battling Missouri Southern at 12:30 p.m. and WU taking on MSSU at 4 p.m. WU's "B" team also will face the Pitt State "B" team at 1 p.m. on an alternate court.
 
"I'm really looking forward to our team competing again against MIAA competition," Pitt State head coach Jen Gomez said. "It's been a long time and the players are excited and ready to play!"
 
The day's action is open to the general public with free admission, but Pitt State will stop allowing fans once it reaches 25 percent capacity of John Lance Arena. Fans will have access only to the north and south seating areas (upper and lower levels), creating a capacity of 382 people.
 
Mask wearing, social distancing and other normal COVID protocols will be enforced. For the spring season, the MIAA decided not to require its membership to provide a public address announcer at home events or statistics to be kept of competition.
 
For fans not able to attend the matches in person, Pitt State will provide a free live web stream of all four matches on the main court on themiaanetwork.com.
 
Pitt State will play 14 matches during the spring, all against MIAA competition.
 
In addition to Saturday's action, Pitt State also will host Missouri Southern (Mar. 18), Newman (Apr. 2), Central Oklahoma (Apr. 3), Central Missouri (Apr. 6) and Emporia State (Apr. 10) among its six home dates this spring.
 
Pitt State will have road matches against Emporia State (Feb. 25), Central Missouri (Feb. 26), Missouri Southern (Mar. 3), Central Oklahoma (Mar. 10), Newman (Mar. 12), Missouri Western (Mar. 27) and Northwest Missouri (Mar. 27).
 
Attendance policies for road matches will be determined by the host institutions.
 
The MIAA spring season will culminate with all schools being invited to a postseason tournament that will be held Apr. 16-18.
 
The spring season came to fruition after the MIAA canceled its 2020 fall volleyball season due to the Covid-19 pandemic.