GAME 1: Live Stats vs. North Texas
GAME 2: Live Stats vs. (15) Missouri
GAME 3: Live Stats vs. Mississippi Valley State

NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State volleyball program will open its highly anticipated 2014 season on Friday at the North Texas Invitational in Denton, Texas. NSU will play North Texas at 7 p.m. followed games Saturday against Missouri at 1 p.m. and Mississippi Valley State at 4:30.

"We're ready to play," fifth-year co-head coach Hugh Hernesman said. "Our systems are in place which it has helped having a good group of returners. I would imagine coming into the weekend that we're going to see different people in different roles."

This season will mark the second consecutive year the Lady Demons have competed in the tournament. Last year in Denton, NSU posted a sweep against Prairie View A&M coupled with losses to Texas State, North Texas and Utah.

"This is really about us being able to do the things that we do well," Hernesman said. "We'll see how that works this weekend. We think we're ready; we think we've got the systems in place and now we'll get to figure out to see if those systems are effective or not."

The Lady Demons return 12 letterwinners and all seven starters from a team that tallied a 21-12 record and earned a spot in the Southland Conference championship match one year ago.

Among the returnees are 2014 All-Southland Conference first-team preseason selections Keelie Arneson, Stacey DiFrancesco and Ashley Elrod in addition to second-team members Caiti O'Connell and Mackenzie Neely.

The weekend will also offer a homecoming of sorts for several area Lady Demons including Arlington native Ashley Elrod, Plano natives Aubrey Davis, Emily Johnson and Amanda Kunz, Allen native Bailey Martin and Corinth native Madison Walford.

Under the direction of co-head coaches Hugh and Stephanie Hernesman, the program has risen to new heights in part by placing a key emphasis on playing marquee non-conference programs and this weekend will be no exception.

"Usually preseason we've treated as a scrimmage to some degree," Hernesman said. "You want to see where you're at. I think the emphasis for us with such a big group of returning players and the depth and talent we have is that we intend to go out and put ourselves in a position to win some matches."

Tournament host North Texas is coming off a 17-15 season, its first as a member of Conference USA. At the program's helm is second-year head coach Andrew Palileo, a former Pac-12 Coach of the Year with Washington State. Friday's season opener between NSU and UNT will be the 18^th all-time with the Mean Green holding a 12-5 edge since the series began in 1976.

Missouri comes into Denton as the defending SEC Champion and No. 15 ranked program. The Tigers are riding the nation's longest regular season match win streak at 34 games. Saturday's match will mark the first ever meeting between the Lady Demons and Tigers.

NSU will close out the tournament with SWAC conference member Mississippi Valley State, a program that went 10-21 a season ago. The Lady Demons hold a 2-0 edge in the series with this season's matchup marking the first since 1992.

Following the weekend slate, Northwestern State will travel to Lafayette where it will play Southern Miss on Sept. 5 and both Southern and Louisiana-Lafayette on Sept. 6.