Setter Amy Dion reacts after the Terps fall to North Carolina, 3-2, on Nov. 24, 2013 at Comcast Center.

Terrapins volleyball coach Steve Aird announced the team’s 2014 schedule Tuesday for its inaugural season in the Big Ten.

The schedule will include 13 matches against teams ranked in the top 16 of the final 2013 AVCA poll and six of the eight teams that participated in the 2013 NCAA tournament quarterfinals.

The Terps are joining an elite volleyball conference in the Big Ten, which sent seven of its 12 teams to the Sweet 16 last season.

The Terps endured a rough 2013 campaign in which they finished 13-19 and failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the eighth year in a row.

Aird was hired in January to lead the team into the new conference, shortly after this university announced that former coach Tim Horsmon would return to his previous job at Dayton.

Aird will have his hands full in his first season with the Terps, who open Comcast Pavillion’s doors for their first Big Ten game Oct. 3 against Illinois. They then host No. 8 Purdue two days later.

The season begins on Aug. 28 when the team heads to Elon for a tournament against Liberty, San Jose State and the Phoenix.