ATLANTA --- The Chattanooga indoor volleyball team will officially open its 2023 regular season this weekend, with the team partaking in three matches at the Georgia State Invitational, set to run August 25-26.

Mocs will kick off the year with a season-opening clash against New Orleans, with the match set for 10:30 a.m. ET. UTC won't have long to regroup, as later that day the team is set to battle with South Carolina State at 3:30 p.m. ET. The team will then wrap up its tournament on Saturday by taking on tournament host Georgia State at 2 p.m. ET.

All three matches are set to take place at the GSU Sports Arena in Atlanta and are free for the public. Live stats will be available for all matches, but none of Chattanooga's matches will be available to stream over the weekend.

MATCH CENTRAL
Friday, August 25 | vs. New Orleans | 10:30 a.m. ET
Friday, August 25 | vs. South Carolina State | 3:30 p.m. ET
Saturday, August 26 | at Georgia State | 2:00 p.m. ET
Coverage Links: Live Stats (UNO) | Live Stats (SCSU) | Live Stats (GSU)

SERIES HISTORY
UNO: First-ever meeting
SCSU: 2-0
GSU: 7-8

INSIDE THE SERIES
The Mocs open their tournament by taking on New Orleans, whom UTC has never played against prior to their meeting on Friday. Chattanooga will then take on a South Carolina State team that the Mocs have never lost to, holding a 2-0 record against the Bulldogs. The last meeting between the two teams came in 2016, when the Mocs secured a 3-0 sweep. Finally, the Mocs will look to improve to a .500 record against Georgia State on Saturday. The Panthers currently lead the all-time series with eight wins to UTC's seven, but in the past 10 matchups the Mocs hold a 6-4 advantage over GSU. The teams most recently met last season at the Jacksonville Invitational, where Georgia State was able to edge out a 3-2 win over Chattanooga in the neutral site affair.

THOUGHTS FROM COACH TORBETT
"We are excited to play our opening weekend just down the road in Atlanta. It will be a good test for us after winning our preseason exhibition match and having a successful preseason. The first match is always tough because you don't get to scout the other team and so many rosters quickly change each year. I'm sure all the teams in the tournament are anxious to play and get out of their own gyms."

YEAR 30
This season will be Director of Volleyball Julie Torbett's 30^th year as the head coach of an NCAA volleyball program. She holds a 485-420 overall record with a total of 27 seasons coming at Division I schools, sitting just 15 wins away from the 500-win mark in her coaching career. Among those programs, she coached 17 seasons at UNC Asheville with 304-257 record and two conference titles. Her 12 other seasons have been at East Carolina (7), Winthrop (2), Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2) and her inaugural season at UTC last year.

INSIDE THE ROSTER
The Mocs are returning 10 past letterwinners from previous UTC teams, while welcoming three transfer portal additions and three new freshmen to the team. The 2023 roster consists of three freshmen, zero sophomores, nine juniors, one senior and three graduate students – classes reflect current NCAA COVID waiver from 2020-21.

WHO'S NEW
The 2023 Mocs squad will feature six new faces this coming season, with three coming in via transfer and the other three coming in as freshmen. Graduate transfers Morgan Romano and Grey Breen both come to UTC following previous stops at Rider and Lipscomb, respectively, while junior transfer Chard'e Vanzandt joins the team after spending her most recent season at Louisiana Tech. UTC's freshmen include Indianapolis native Caiti Barthel, Jordyn Butler of Columbia, Missouri, and Kynedi Jennings who joins the Mocs from Memphis.

WHO'S BACK
The Mocs welcome back their 2022 team-leaders in both digs and assists, with juniors Paige Gallentine and Elaine Redman set to enter upperclassmen status this coming season. Fellow setter Sophia Bossong also returns to the UTC roster this year following a season where she tallied 538 assists alongside Redman's 688. The duo accounted for just under 88% of the team's total assists in 2022.

The Mocs also welcome back Marcelle Baez-Carlo, who continues to serve as a blocking presence upfront along with fellow junior Chloe Bryan after the pair chalked up a combined 117 blocks last year. Grad student Gylian Finch returns to the 2023 squad following a year away from volleyball in 2022. Finch has finished either first or second on the team in kills in each of her previous four seasons at UTC, with her most coming in 2019 when she tallied 313. Overall, the team is returning 51% of its kills, 98% of its assists, 72% of its aces, 75% of its digs, 57% of its blocks and 53% of its total points from last season.

PRESEASON STANDOUTS
UTC was able to get its first taste of action last week in preparation for the GSU Invite, hosting both the annual Blue-Gold Intrasquad Scrimmage and an exhibition match against Tennessee Tech. At the Blue-Gold match, a plethora of newcomers made immediate impacts for the Mocs with all three of the team's new transfers finishing with double-digit kills. Grey Breen led the team with 13, while fellow transfer portal additions Morgan Romano and Chard'e Vanzandt followed closely behind with 12 and 10, respectively. The duo of Romano and Vanzandt continued to impress in the team's following match against TTU, accounting for a combined 24 kills. Ultimately it was returner Paige Gallentine who was awarded with the team's Top Preseason Performer award, as the reigning All-SoCon selection tallied 41 digs across the team's two preseason matches.

CAREER MILESTONE WATCH
- Paige Gallentine is 55 digs away from crossing the 1,500 mark in career digs. She would mark just the seventh Moc to accomplish the feat.
- Following a year away from the team, grad student Gylian Finch sits just eight kills shy of 1,000 in her career, all coming at UTC. She would be just the 10th Moc to cross the 1,000-kill threshold in their career at Chattanooga.
- Finch also is 10 aces away from 100 in her career.
- Junior Elaine Redman is just 12 assists shy of having 700 assists with the Mocs. She currently sits at 1,745 over her entire career stretching between Chattanooga and Toledo.
- Makenzie Jordan is 19 digs away from having 500 in her time at UTC. She also sits at 742 over her entire career.

ABOUT NEW ORLEANS
Under head coach Ashley Preston, the Privateers have been on the mend as the third-year head coach continues to rebuild UNO's program. After recording just one win in 2021, the Privateers were able to bounce back in 2022 by finishing 15-16 on the year, including going 9-9 in the Southland Conference. While New Orleans lost many of their team-leaders from 2022, they will welcome back senior libero/defensive specialist Rita Zecchin, who led the Privateers in aces (33) last season along with ranking second on the team in digs with 304. A total of nine out of New Orleans' 20-woman roster are freshmen this year, with the Mocs matching up against one of the youngest teams in the entire NCAA with the average age of the GSU squad being 20 years, three months and 22 days.

ABOUT SOUTH CAROLINA STATE
To say that South Carolina State is entering their 2023 season-opening weekend riding a slump would be quite an understatement. The Bulldogs currently ride a 99-match losing streak into the season, with the team's last win coming on September 26, 2018, against Savannah State. Despite this, the Bulldogs still can't be overlooked. This year's SCSU squad is a new-look team, starting at the top with first-year head coach Melissa Paige. A former standout player for the Bulldogs, Paige joins the team following a stint at Alcorn State, where she became the fourth-winningest coach in school history. With Paige not only comes a new support staff, but also 10 new additions to the team including six freshmen and four transfers.

ABOUT GEORGIA STATE
Georgia State enters 2023 following a 7-22 record just a year ago, including going 3-13 in the Sun Belt. Heading into the new season, the Panthers were selected to finish seventh in the Sun Belt's East Division, receiving 21 votes in the SBC's 2023 Preseason Coaches Poll. Of the Panthers' returners, junior Livy Kowalkowski stands out as one of the key members of the 2023 squad. Kowalkowski comes off a year where she led GSU in total digs (472) and digs per set (4.29), which both finished ranked ninth in program history in the team's single-season records. Serving as the tournament host, Georgia State will be able to utilize their home court for the weekend, something they've done well in the past against UTC as the Panthers hold a 5-3 all-time record against the Mocs when playing at home.

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