ERIE, Pa. - The Gannon University volleyball team will begin its 2008 season with the Gannon Invitational, a four-team, two-day event at the Hammermill Center August 29-30. The Lady Knights will host Lake Erie College Friday at 6 p.m., and then take on Pitt-Johnstown at 10 a.m. Saturday. GU will close out the event with a match against Daemen at 4 p.m.

Gannon returns four starters and seven letterwinners from last year's 6-20 squad. Seniors Ashley Tubbs (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) and Julienne Moots (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny), along with junior Maire Prybyl (Mars, Pa./North Catholic), will be the team's captains for the 2008 season. Tubbs is the team's leading returner in kills with 190. Moots totaled 161 kills and 62 blocks in the 2007 season. Prybyl, the Lady Knights' setter, finished among the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's (GLIAC) top ten with 767 assists and 43 aces last year.

Coach Matt Darling enters his second season at the helm of the Lady Knights. 2008 marks the first season for Gannon in the Pennsylvania Scholastic Athletic Conference (PSAC). GU was chosen to finish seventh in the PSAC West, according to the preseason coaches' poll.

The Lake Erie College (Ohio) Storm went 13-21 out of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference in 2007. They return three starters, including senior Tiffany Farner, who led the team with 275 kills.

The Pitt-Johnstown Lady Cats finished 15-15 out of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference last season. UPJ returns four starters from last year's team.

The Daemen College (N.Y.) Wildcats went 11-25 out of the American Mideast Conference in 2007. They traveled to California for an invitational to kick off the 2008 season. They lost all four matches at Azusa Pacific (Cal.).

Gannon travels to Findlay (Ohio) for the Findlay Invitational next weekend.