The tournament will begin on Friday at 4 p.m. with South Dakota State facing Southeast Missouri State.

Then at 7:30 p.m. the No. 15 Blue Raiders will take the floor against Idaho. In 2007, Middle Tennessee defeated Idaho 3-1 at the Idaho Invitational in Moscow, Idaho.

"We are really looking forward to this weekend. You know how training camp is; sometimes you get sick of looking at the same faces on the other side of the net. We know what we are going to do when we are scrimmaging so we get to put ourselves to the test this weekend," head coach Matt Peck said.

The Blue Raiders had two players, senior Ashley Asberry and junior Leslie Clark named to the Sun Belt Conference preseason team.

In addition to leading Middle Tennessee in solo blocks (12), block assists (179) and total blocks (191), Asberry was named Honorable Mention All-America by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, AVCA First Team South All-Region and First Team All-Conference in 2007.

Clark, who led the NCAA in assists throughout the 2007 season, was named AVCA Honorable Mention South All-Region and to the Sun Belt All-Tournament team.

These two players will help guide the Blue Raiders during their first weekend of action in 2008.

Asberry and Clark will see assistance from a number of players including sophomore Izabela Kozon and juniors Ashley Mead and Sasha McGlothin.

"I think our girl's are very excited to get to see some live opponents. I think we will have a good weekend. We are still trying to figure out who is going to be where and I think that will probably be decided this week during practice and possibly even Friday morning depending on how practice goes. We have a number of players in the mix for positions and I think we will probably use 12 to 14 players this weekend," Peck said.

Kozon received NCAA All-Region honors after her performance against Brigham-Young. Kozon ended the season with 349 kills, averaging 2.73 per set, a .227 hitting percentage and 36 service aces.

Mead performed well at the Sun Belt Conference tournament recording 17 kills against Florida International and 16 against Western Kentucky in the final match. Mead ended the 2007 season with 364 kills, averaging 3.11 per set.

McGlothin began the 2007 season as a reserve but quickly moved into a starting role and ended the season with 86 blocks and 123 kills with a .352 hitting percentage.

Junior Ashley Waugh will help anchor the defense as the returning defensive specialist. In 2007, Waugh averaged 2.26 digs per set with 283 total digs and 19 service aces.

"We may redshirt one or two players but I am not sure who that will be yet. We have a lot of depth this year and every one is in great shape. We don't have any injuries and have had some very productive practices," Peck said. "We are putting in some new twists offensively so there are still some things to work out there but we are getting better every day."

There are a number of rule changes to the collegiate game beginning with the 2008 season to make it more in-line with the international game.

Each game is now called a set and three sets make a match. Teams will now play to 25 points instead of playing to 30 points. Also the number of substitutions has been reduced from 15 to 12 keeping with the reduction of points to each set. The fifth set will remain at 15 points and teams must win by two-points in all sets.

Middle Tennessee will round out the Middle Tennessee Invitational by playing Southeast Missouri State at 10 a.m. and South Dakota State at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The Redhawks have been picked to finish third in the Ohio Valley preseason poll after sharing its ninth regular season title. South Dakota State reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history in 2007 after winning the Summit conference tournament and a share of the regular season title.

"The nice thing is this weekend we have a 2007 NCAA tournament opponent in South Dakota State playing, SEMO, who won a share of the regular season title but lost in the tournament and Idaho, who played us very tough at their place last year. I am expecting three very competitive matches this weekend.

All matches during the Middle Tennessee Invitational will be played in Alumni Memorial Gym on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University. Admission to all matches is free.

Schedule of Events

Friday, August 29
4:30 p.m. South Dakota State vs. SE Missouri State
7:30 p.m. Middle Tennessee vs. Idaho

Saturday, August 30
10 a.m. Idaho vs. South Dakota State
12:30 p.m. Middle Tennessee vs. SE Missouri State
4:30 p.m. SE Missouri State vs. Idaho
7:30 p.m. Middle Tennessee vs. South Dakota State

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