Jan. 5, 2005

Santa Barbara, Calif. - This Week's Schedule

Wednesday, January 5 • 7:05 p.m.
UC Santa Barbara vs. Calgary

UCSB Elephant Bar Invitational
Friday January 7 & Saturday January 8 • All Day
UCSB's Thunderdome & Robertson Gym

Preseason Exhibition
In a precursor to this weekend's Elephant Bar Invitational, UC Santa Barbara hosts the University of Calgary in its lone preseason match of the year this Wednesday night in Robertson Gymnasium. The Gauchos and Dinos have squared off numerous times before, however, since Calgary is not an NCAA institution, an official record series has not been kept. The first serve is set to sail at 7:05.

An Annual Event
It just wouldn't be the start of the NCAA Men's Volleyball season if UCSB wasn't hosting its Elephant Bar Invitational, and that is just what they are doing when the Gauchos host their tourney for the 41st time this Friday and Saturday. UCSB, along with fellow Mountain Pacific Sports Federation members: Long Beach State, UCLA, UC Irvine, Pacific, Stanford, USC, and Cal State Northridge, will all begin their 2005 campaign's this weekend in Santa Barbara. All but one of the team's participating in this year's EBar Invitational, USC, finished last season ranked in the Top 15 nationally. And the Gauchos first round opponent, Long Beach State, played for the NCAA Championship last year. The average final ranking of this weekend's field was 9.4.