RUSTON, La. ? A year after compiling a 19-16 record and one of the biggest turnarounds in the country, Louisiana Tech volleyball head coach Heather Mazeitis has upgraded the Lady Techster schedule significantly for the 2003 season.

Highlighting the schedule is a second straight trip to Hawaii to face the Rainbow Wahine, who will be ranked in top-five in preseason polls. Hawaii returns five starters from a team, that advanced to the volleyball final four a year ago and fell to Stanford in the national semifinals.

Tech?s pre league slate will consist of four tournaments. The Lady Techsters will play in tournaments hosted by Louisiana-Lafayette (UL-Lafayette, UL-Monroe and Alcorn State), Southwest Texas State (Southwest Texas State, Florida State, Wisconsin, Arkansas State), Drake (Drake, DePaul, Southeast Missouri State) and Tulane (Tulane, Centenary, Missouri-Kansas City).

In the Southwest Texas State event, Tech will take on national power Wisconsin. The Badgers finished the 2002 season ranked 18th.

The schedule consists of five teams (Hawaii, Fresno State, Nevada, Florida State and Wisconsin) that participated in the NCAA Volleyball Championships a year ago.

The Lady Techsters return five starters from last year?s squad including Second-Team All-WAC performers Cristine Sant?Anna and Lia Mora.

Tech opens Western Athletic Conference play with three straight road matches beginning on September 25th at Boise State. The Lady Techsters then take on UTEP and SMU on the road before hosting Rice on October 9th in Tech?s first WAC home match.

Tech will enter the season with a five match home court winning streak including four in a row in WAC play to close last season.

After a home match with Tulsa on October 11th, the Lady Techsters take a road swing to Hawaii (Oct. 16) and San Jose State (Oct. 18) before playing five of their last seven matches at home.

The Lady Techsters have home non-conference match-ups with North Texas, Louisiana-Monroe and Nicholls State. Tech?s only road non-conference match that is not at a tournament will be October 21st when the Lady Techsters travel to Northwestern State.

Tech hosts 2002 NCAA Tournament participants Fresno State on October 23rd and Nevada on October 25th.

Tech concludes the regular season with four home matches in November with the regular season finale scheduled for November 13th versus UTEP.

Once again, the top eight teams in the league will qualify for the WAC Volleyball Championships, November 21-23. The site has yet to be determined.