IRVINE, Calif. - On Thursday, the Pacific West Conference reiterated its plan to return to competition in the spring semester of 2021 with a few updates.

The league's Executive Board voted unanimously this week to announce return to competition dates and scheduling concepts for the upcoming semester, with competition to resume as allowed by local and state guidelines.

The PacWest plans to restart conference competition after a ten-month hiatus during the week of January 18 with the men's and women's basketball seasons tipping off around the conference.  The schedules for each of the PacWest sports will include in-pod games, dividing the conference into three pods – Hawai'i, Northern California, and Southern California.

Concordia University Irvine is in the same pod as SoCal rivals Azusa Pacific, Biola and Point Loma.  Meanwhile, Chaminade, Hawai`i Hilo and Hawai`i Pacific make up the Hawai`i pod. The Northern California group contains Academy of Art, Dominican, Fresno Pacific and Holy Names.

"We are excited to have progress in our PacWest sports as the conference has worked together to provide the best case scenario for our student-athletes as we work to follow state and NCAA guidelines," said CUI athletic director Crystal Rosenthal. "Our coaches and student-athletes have worked hard all fall to prepare, and I cannot wait to watch as our Eagles return to compete."

"This is a big step forward for our conference in our continuing efforts to safely return to competition during these challenging times," Commissioner Bob Hogue said. "We've been working hard to create the right conditions for student-athletes to have meaningful seasons of competition in a way that minimizes risk and is in accordance with local, state and federal guidelines. We are looking forward to seeing student-athletes back to competing in the sports they love."

The conference basketball season will run for seven weeks from mid-January through the first week of March.  Fall sports soccer and volleyball will also compete in-pod during the spring semester; the conference soccer schedule is expected to run from the beginning of February thru early March, with the conference volleyball schedule immediately following soccer, from mid-March to late April.

Specific schedules in all of these sports, as well as in the spring sports of baseball and softball, which are set to begin in March, will be announced at a later date.  Details for the spring championship sports of golf, tennis, and track and field, as well as details for the cross country season will also be announced at a later date.

Concordia University Irvine competes in 13 PacWest sports: men's and women's soccer, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field, women's volleyball, baseball and softball.

"Our non-PacWest sports schedules will also begin to be released, so this will be a rare opportunity to watch the entire CUI athletic department in one semester," added Rosenthal.

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