Aug. 26, 2008

BOCA RATON, FL - The Florida Atlantic University volleyball team will begin its 2008 regular season by hosting the FAU Invitational on Friday, August 29 and Saturday, August 30 at the FAU Arena.

The University of North Florida, Bethune-Cookman University and the University of Northern Iowa will make up the rest of the field. It will be the first home tournament for FAU since 2005 and since the FAU Arena underwent a $10 million renovation last summer.

The Owls return all nine players from the 2007 team and also brought in four new faces to bolster their roster as they look to improve on last year's 6-21 record. FAU will face Bethune-Cookman in its season opener at 7 p.m. on Friday. The Wildcats return eight letterwinners from last season's 8-16 squad.

FAU's first opponent on Saturday will be UNF at noon. The Ospreys defeated the Owls three games to two last season at the UCF Invitational in Orlando. North Florida won the match despite 13 kills by Kala Abdell. The Owls will finish the tournament at 7 p.m. on Saturday when they face UNI. The Panthers advanced to the NCAA Tournament last season as champions of the Missouri Valley Conference. UNI returns three of their top four kill leaders from 2007, including junior Shannon Aschoff, who was named the most valuable player of the MVC Tournament.

All games will be available via GameTracker and all of FAU's games will be webstreamed live at fausports.com.