TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES

ALABAMA Crimson Tide - Alabama opens its 2009 season with one of its toughest tournaments in years. The Crimson Tide will face No. 20 Saint Louis on Friday, August 28 at 7:00 p.m. (CST) before taking on defending back-to-back National Champion, and No. 1-ranked, Penn State on Saturday, August 29 at 1:00 p.m. (CST). Its final match at the Active Ankle Challenge in St. Louis, Mo. will be against Miami (Ohio) on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. (CST). Alabama returns eight letterwinners this season including SEC Preseason selection Brooks Webster. In addition to its returnees, the Tide welcomes two transfers and a pair of newcomers. Setter Kayla Schmidt joined the program in January after guiding Blinn College to the NJCAA National Championship. She was named AVCA Two Colleges National Player of the Year and NJCAA Player of the Year. Middle blocker Sarah Machen returned to her home state after spending the last season at the University of Oklahoma. Alabama’s freshmen class includes two PrepVolleyball.com All-Americans in Kelsey Anderson and Kayla Fitterer. Anderson, a libero/defensive specialist, is the 2008 Kentucky Player of the Year and Miss Kentucky Volleyball, while Fitterer, an outside hitter, is a two-time Alton Telegraph Large School Volleyball Player of the Year. She also holds the Edwardsville (Ill.) High School record of 1,259 career kills.

ARKANSAS Lady Razorbacks - The University of Arkansas opens the 2009 season this weekend at the TCU Invitational in Fort Worth, Texas. Arkansas' first match is with TCU Friday followed by matches with Loyola Marymount and Grambling State. Arkansas opens at home Sept. 1, hosting Texas-Arlington. The Razorbacks feature a new look this year with just five returning players from last year's team. Seniors Lindsay Scanlan and Kristin Seaton are the lone upperclassmen as the Razorbacks also have three sophomores and seven newcomers on this year's squad.

AUBURN Tigers - The Auburn volleyball team enters its 24th season with new expectations and hope for progress in the right direction. That is the goal for Auburn head coach Wade Benson as he enters his sophomore season at the helm of the Tiger volleyball team. The squad begins the 2009 campaign with high hopes for its incoming class. Benson and his coaching staff brought in PrepVolleyball.com’s 26th-best class and the third-ranked class in the Southeastern Conference. With nine freshmen and a transfer joining the squad, new beginnings is the name of the game for the 2009 Tigers. The eight returning members, including four starters and libero, will play key roles to the progression of the young class. AU begins the 2009 season this weekend at home, hosting the War Eagle Invitational. Auburn will open at 12 p.m., Friday against Alabama A&M and will also play Alabama-Birmingham during the two-day tournament.

FLORIDA Gators - The Florida volleyball team opens its 2009 campaign by playing three matches in four days this weekend, beginning with the Campus USA Credit Union Invitational. The Gators begin their season on Friday night by playing host to UNLV at 7 p.m. before squaring off with Colorado at 7 p.m. Saturday. UF and intrastate rival Florida State compete on Monday night at 7 p.m. in Gainesville. The Gators are coming off a 27-4 record and an NCAA regional semifinal appearance in 2008. Florida set an NCAA Division I record with its 18th consecutive Southeastern Conference title last season and the Gators were again predicted in a preseason poll of the league's coaches to repeat as conference champion in 2009. The Gators return five starters from a year ago, including AVCA National Freshman of the Year Kelly Murphy and the school's all-time career digs leader in Elyse Cusack. Florida is 17-8 all-time in season-opening matches, including a 14-4 record under 19th-year head coach Mary Wise.

GEORGIA Bulldogs - The Georgia Bulldogs will open their 2009 season road at the Georgia Tech Regency Suites Invitational in Atlanta Aug. 28-29. The Bulldogs first match of the year will come against in-state rival Georgia Tech at 7 p.m. ET on Friday. On Saturday, Georgia will face another in-state foe in Mercer at 10:30 a.m. before playing its final match of the tournament against Austin Peay at 4:30 p.m. Against Georgia Tech, the Bulldogs will be looking to snap a three-match losing streak. Georgia’s last win in the series came in 2005 in Athens, and the Bulldogs last won in Atlanta in 1991. All-time, Georgia leads the series 21-10. Last year, the Yellow Jackets won 3-1 (33-31, 25-22, 22-25, 25-22) at the Ramsey Center. Georgia has won all five meetings against Mercer including a 3-0 (25-18, 29-27, 25-17) contest in 2008, and the only prior meeting between Georgia and Austin Peay came in UGA’s first season of volleyball in 1978. The Bulldogs won that match 2-0 (15-10, 15-7).The 2009 season is also Georgia's third season under the direction of head coach Joel McCartney. In his first two seasons leading the Bulldogs, McCartney has compiled a 34-27 record. In 2007, he led the program to its biggest single-season turnaround with 17 wins following a six-win campaign in ‘06 before his arrival. In 2008, McCartney again led the Bulldogs to 17 wins including 10 Southeastern Conference victories, the most league wins by a Georgia squad in five seasons. For his career, McCartney enters 2009 with winning percentage of .713 with a record of 316-127, which ranks him as the 22nd winningest active NCAA Division I coach. This year’s team features just three upperclassmen, all juniors, three sophomores, two redshirt freshmen and four true freshmen. Despite being a youthful squad with no seniors, the Bulldogs return four regular starters (Erika Clark, OH; Ann Dylla, MH; Kathleen Gates, S; Valentina Gonzalez, MH) plus their starting libero (Carla Tietz) from 2008. Following the opening weekend at the Georgia Tech Regency Suites Invitational, Georgia will return to Athens to play host to the Georgia Dawgs Invitational, Sept. 4-5, with visiting teams Duke, South Alabama and Tennessee State.

KENTUCKY Wildcats - The University of Kentucky volleyball team opens its 2009 campaign with its lone home tournament of the season. UK welcomes Northwestern,Western Carolina and Florida International to a four-team round-robin affair in Memorial Coliseum. Kentucky enters the season ranked No. 21 in the country, attaining a preseason ranking for the first time in 16 years. UK has appeared in four consecutive NCAA tournaments for the first time in school history and is looking to become the first team to make five straight post-season appearances. TheWildcats return five starters and its starting libero to the rotation. Eleven letterwinners return from the 26-6 squad a year ago. Included in the return is reigning SEC Player of the Year and All-America honorable mention selection Sarah Rumely. UK’s director of the offensive unit has charted over 4,000 assists in her career to pace theWildcat attack.

LSU Tigers - With a core of seasoned veterans and a crop of talented newcomers, the LSU volleyball team is more than capable of building on its championship tradition during the 2009 season. Once again playing in one of the nation’s toughest conferences, the Tigers will look to defend its four straight SEC Western Division crowns. LSU also has accumulated four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and posted 22.5 wins per season during its four-year run. The keys to the team’s ability to take that next step begin with its returning arsenal highlighted by middle blockers Brittnee Cooper, Lauren DeGirolamo and Michele Williams along with outside hitter Marina Skender. Together, LSU’s high octane quartet boasts 52 career accolades, including 2007 and 2008 AVCA All-American Honorable Mention status for both DeGirolamo and Cooper, respectively. The Tigers also return setters Sam Dabbs and Brittney Johnson coupled with veteran outside hitter Angela Bensend and middle blocker Tania Schatow. Between the eight returning players, the 2009 Tigers feature more than 2,500 kills and have contributed to 90 LSU victories. LSU has 12 matches scheduled against 2008 NCAA Tournament teams as the Tigers open the season against national runner-up Stanford (Aug. 28) followed by matches against Denver (Aug. 29) and host Notre Dame (Aug. 30) at the Shamrock Invitational.

OLE MISS Rebels - The Ole Miss volleyball team takes the court for its 34th season this weekend when the Rebels open the 2009 campaign at the Missouri Tiger Invitational on campus at the University of Missouri. Ole Miss will face Texas State (11 a.m.) and BYU (4 p.m.) on the first day of the event before closing out the tournament against host Missouri at noon on Saturday. The Rebels faced-off against both BYU and Missouri in the 2007. Ole Miss posetd a 3-2 win over then No. 20 Missouri at the Rebels' own tournament to open the season and fell to BYU 3-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to close out the 2007 season. Ole Miss last faced Texas State in 2004 with a 3-1 loss at a tournament hosted by Texas State. The Rebels welcome seven freshmen to the team this year, including three ranked among the top 100 seniors in the nation (Allegra Wells, Courtney Cunningham and Whitney Craven) alongside a high school All-American (Ashley Veach), giving Ole Miss the 23rd-ranked recruiting class in the country. The Rebels also welcome back lone senior Caitlin Weiss along with seven other players, including All-Freshman selection Regina Thomas and last year's kill leader in Katie Norris. It is the Rebels' eighth season under head coach Joe Getzin.

MISSISSIPPI STATE Bulldogs - Mississippi State opens its 35th season of volleyball and ushers in the Jenny Hazelwood coaching era this weekend when the Bulldogs play host to the Mississippi State Maroon Classic. MSU opens the 2009 campaign and a school-record 17-match home schedule Friday, hosting instate rival Jackson State. MSU concludes play in the two-day event Saturday with matches against McNeese State and Arkansas-Little Rock ... Jenny Hazelwood, who starred as a setter during her four-year collegiate career at Mississippi State (1996-99), begins her first season as head coach of the Bulldogs and her 10th season as a collegiate head volleyball coach. She previously skippered teams at Mississippi College, Centenary College and Austin Peay State University. Named head coach at State in January, the 2000 MSU grad holds school records for assists in a match, season and career ... State returns 10 players that drew starts last fall, including five players that started 21 matches or better and the team's starting libero ... The Volleyball Bulldogs will be hosting the first on-campus athletics competition at State for the 2009-10 season, the 125th anniversary of intercollegiate athletics at Mississippi State.

SOUTH CAROLINA Gamecocks - The Gamecocks enter 2009 with five starters and their libero back from the 21-9 squad last year that just missed out on the NCAA Tournament. Senior outside hitter Ivana Kujundzic earned Preseason All-SEC accolades, while two of her classmates joined her in earning awards a year ago. South Carolina has four newcomers on its roster, two from inside the Palmetto State. One of the biggest matches of the year for the Garnet and Black is its first on Friday night, when the Gamecocks look to down the rival Clemson Tigers as part of the Big Orange Bash. Saturday’s action has the squad facing the College of Charleston and Winthrop in Jervey Gym.

TENNESSEE Lady Volunteers - Coming off its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in the past five seasons, the University of Tennessee volleyball team will look to build off last season’s 22-10 record when it hosts the Comcast Lady Vol Classic this weekend. UT will kick off the campaign with a noon showdown against 2008 Ohio Valley Conference Champion Tennessee Tech at Thompson-Boling Arena on Sat., August 29, before squaring off against the winners of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, Western Kentucky, at 7 p.m. that same day. The final match of the tournament will pit the Lady Vols against Lipscomb at 2:30 p.m. on Sun., Aug. 30. Tennessee, picked to finish third in the SEC in a vote of the league’s 11 head coaches, welcomes five newcomers to a squad that also returns 10 letterwinners from last season, including junior Nikki Fowler, an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American, and senior libero Chloe Goldman, who needs just 288 digs this year to become UT’s all-time leader in career digs.

SEC Coaches Records

                               Overall     SEC
Alabama: Judy Green            614-267   104-110
Arkansas: Robert Pulliza         7-23      4-16
Auburn: Wade Benson            160-80      1-19
Florida: Mary Wise             659-124   270-8
Georgia: Joel McCartney        201-76     18-22
Kentucky: Craig Skinner         84-40     51-25
LSU: Fran Flory                198-132   106-78
Ole Miss: Joe Getzin            93-118    46-78
Miss. State: Jenny Hazelwood    88-223     0-0
South Carolina: Ben Somera      35-24     19-21
Tennessee: Rob Patrick         243-135   113-81