By Kim Staudinger
The Montana State University-Northern volleyball team is coming off a sensational weekend in Florida and hopes to continue the success in its invitational tournament beginning Friday at 11 a.m.
Head coach Lisa Handley says she hopes her team will have fun this weekend and enjoy the first home tournament Northern has had in at least seven years.
"We are coming off a good weekend," she said. "I hope Lyndi (Hostetter) can pick up where she left off and I hope my team will be excited about playing on their home court."
Handley says her team is nursing a few injuries from last weekend, which will leave it at less than 100 percent. Andrea Knox will attempt to play, but she has a possible tear in her rotator cuff and plans to have a medical test to find out for sure. Also on the injured list is Jasmine Mitchell, who has a pulled muscle in her stomach.
With these injuries Handley says she will continue to play people in many different positions and that her team will have to be flexible.
"I hope to have a definite starting six after this weekend," she said. "I just want to see my team play at a steady level."
Handley says her team still needs to work on serve receive this weekend, but that isn't her main concern.
"We want to worry about what we need to do and not worry about who is on the other side of the net," she said. "We need to play our game."
Handley says her team will face some tough competition this weekend, but doesn't want her team to think about its opponent.
"Williston has good size and MSU-Billings will be good," she said. "UGF will have a good team. Dick Scott brought in some good recruits and they will be tough. You can't overlook them, even though it is their first year."
