University Park, Pa. — The four-time defending national champion Penn State women’s volleyball team will have at least seven televised matches during the 2011 season. The Nittany Lions will be featured on the Big Ten Network six times and also have one match broadcast on ESPN2.
The Nittany Lions open the 2011 season hosting the AVCA Showcase on Aug. 26-27 at Rec Hall. Joining the Lions at Rec Hall are Minnesota, USC and Oregon. Minnesota opens the Showcase versus USC at 6 p.m. on Aug. 26 followed by Penn State against Oregon at 8 p.m. On Aug. 27, Minnesota challenges Oregon at 6 p.m. and the Nittany Lions take on USC at 8 p.m. All four matches are set to be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.
From there, the Nittany Lions’ match with Minnesota on Oct. 1 and their match against Northwestern on Oct. 5 will air live on the BTN. Penn State’s Oct. 8 match versus Illinois will be tape-delayed and broadcast on Oct. 10. The final Nittany Lion volleyball match scheduled for the BTN is the Nov. 4 match at Minnesota. The match will be aired live. The Big Ten Network is also committed to airing two wild card matches the final weekend of conference play.
Penn State’s Oct. 22 match with Michigan will be tape-delayed and aired on ESPN2 at 1 p.m. on Oct. 23. It is one of three Big Ten women’s volleyball contests set to be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks.
Last season the Nittany Lions had seven matches broadcast on the BTN during the regular season, as well as two matches on the ESPN family of networks.
The Big Ten Network is available to more than 80 million homes through agreements with more than 300 cable, satellite and telco providers in all 50 states and Canada. Pennsylvania cable providers who carry Big Ten Network include: Atlantic Broadband, Cablevision, CATV Service, Comcast, Consolidated Communications, Kuhn Communications, Nittany Media, RCN, Service Electric Broadband, Service Electric Cable TV & Communications, Service Electric Cablevision, Shen-Heights TV, Time-Warner Cable and Windstream.
Armstrong, Blue Ridge, MetroCast and Adams Cable, though, do not carry the Big Ten Network in Pennsylvania and the Medina and Youngstown, Ohio areas. More than 35,000 Penn State alumni live in the communities served by the four cable providers in Pennsylvania and Ohio, in addition to thousands more fans and current Penn State students.
Armstrong, Blue Ridge, MetroCast and Adams Cable customers missed 115 Penn State events on BTN during the 2010-11 academic year, in addition to coverage from 15 conference championships.
About BTN: A joint venture between the Big Ten Conference and Fox Networks, BTN is the first internationally distributed network dedicated to covering one of the premier collegiate conferences in the country. With more than 800 events, all in HD, the 24/7 network is the ultimate destination for Big Ten fans and alumni across the country, allowing them to see their favorite teams, regardless of where they live. Events include football, men’s and women’s basketball games; dozens of Big Ten Championship events; studio shows; coaches’ shows; and classic games. The network televises and streams more Olympic sporting events and women’s sports than has ever been aired on any other network. Original programming highlights activities and accomplishments of some of the nation’s finest universities. The groundbreaking Student U initiative provides real-world experience for students interested in careers in sports television. The network is available to more than 80 million homes across the United States and Canada, and currently has agreements with more than 300 affiliates, including AT&T U-Verse, Atlantic Broadband, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, DISH Network, Insight, Mediacom, Rogers Cable (Canada), Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct (Canada), Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS. For updated information on BTN, go to www.BTN.com.
