NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State volleyball team returns to the court this weekend at the Harvard Invitational, Sept. 4-5, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Redbirds will face Long Beach State and Rutgers, in addition to tournament host Harvard.
Illinois State (1-2) will travel to the campus of the famed Ivy League school for its second weekend of competition after playing three matches at the Hurricane Invitational, hosted by Miami, in Coral Gables, Florida, last weekend.
Illinois State will open play this weekend against perennial power Long Beach State (2-1) at 3 p.m. CT Friday afternoon. The Redbirds will then play Harvard (0-0) at 12 p.m. CT Saturday, before finishing up with Rutgers (1-2) at 3 p.m. CT later that afternoon.
"We're looking forward to another strong tournament and building on some of the things we did last weekend," said Illinois State head coach Melissa Myers.
Long Beach State is currently the first team outside of the American Volleyball Coaches Association Coaches' Top-25 poll. The 49ers are 7-0 all-time against Illinois State.
Harvard opens its season this weekend as the Ivy League did not compete last weekend. Saturday's meeting with Illinois State will be the first between the two programs.
Rutgers suffered losses to Sacramento State and Santa Clara last weekend before finishing the weekend with a win over UC-Riverside. The Scarlet Knights and Redbirds have met twice previously – Illinois State owns a 2-0 record – although the most recent meeting came in 1983.
All three of the Redbirds' matches at the Harvard Invitational will be streamed live online, free of charge, through the Ivy League Digital Network. Links for the live video, audio and stats for all three matches can be found at GoRedbirds.com, and fans can receive live updates all weekend via Twitter, by following @RedbirdVB.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
