Jan. 6, 2003

The 2003 USC men's volleyball team, under new head coach Turhan Douglas, will open its season in the 8-team UC Santa Barbara Collegiate Invitational this Friday and Saturday (Jan. 10-11) in Santa Barbara.

The eighth-seeded Trojans begin play with a 7 p.m. match against top-seed UCLA on Friday. Troy then will play at 10 a.m. on Saturday against either No. 4 Long Beach State or No. 5 Cal State Northridge, as play continues throughout the day.

Also in the tourney are No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 Pacific, No. 6 UC Santa Barbara and No. 7 UC Irvine.

USC returns 4 starters from last year's squad which went 6-22: setter Miles McGann, middle blockers Josh Day and Phil Small and outside hitter Mark Dusharme. In all, 12 lettermen are back.

After the UCSB tourney, the Trojans open Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play with a 7 p.m. home match in the Lyon Center against Pepperdine on Jan. 17.