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BATON ROUGE, La. – The Jacksonville State volleyball team will get the Joseph Goodson era underway on Friday, when the Gamecocks begin play in the LSU Tiger Classic at the Maravich Center.

JSU will open the four-match weekend with a 10 a.m. meeting with Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday before finishing the day against Miami at 4:30 p.m. The Gamecocks will then wrap up their season opening weekend on Saturday, when they face host LSU at 11 a.m. and Alcorn State at 5 p.m.

Just the fifth head coach in the program's history, Goodson will make his head coaching debut on Friday morning against the Ragin' Cajuns. He takes over the Gamecocks after serving the past four seasons as an assistant at Wisconsin-Green Bay.

The Gamecocks have seven letterwinnners returning from last year's 16-14 team that fifnished third in the Ohio Valley Conference, the same place in the standings they were picked to finish in 2011. Senior libero Lauren Harkins leads the JSU back row, while junior outside hitter and Preseason All-OVC pick Jen Meyer heads up the Gamecocks' front row.

Harkins, a 5-7 native of Louisville, Ky., heads into the weekend with school history well within her grasp. With 1,714 career digs, she needs just 32 more to pass Kisha West as the Gamecocks' career leader in that category. She is currentlt 14th on the OVC's career digs list and is the league's active leader in career digs.

Meyer, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter from Maineville, Ohio, was second on the team with 2.41 kills per set in 2010, while also recording 22 service aces, 96 digs and 46 blocks. Her .239 attack percentage was second on the squad after she knocked down 265 kills on over 700 swings. She also posted a .958 service percentage after committing just 16 errors in 377 service attempts.

Joining Meyer on the front row is a pair of seniors in Stephanie Koontz and Liza Senenkova. Koontz enters her fourth season with the Gamecocks, while Senenkova begins her second after transferring from Blinn College prior to 2010. Sophomore Lauren Busing also brings experience up front, while junior Hivya Leite gets her first action after redshirting last season. The Cabedelo, Brazil, native transferred from Blinn College with Senenkova. Freshmen Alina Agamy, Alicia Dukes and Nicole Merget will be making their collegiate debuts this weekend.

After splitting the setting duties with all-time assists leader Brooke Schumacher a year ago, sophomore Abbey Heredia prepares to take over the position in 2011. A native of Cary, Ill., she averaged 4.71 assists per set as a true freshman. Agamy will provide depth at that position.

Joining Harkins on the back row is sophomore Kelly Cole, who saw significant action as a reserve in 2010. She was fifth on the team in digs as a true freshman, averaging just under two per set.

The Gamecocks' schedule will be away from home early, as they play their first 10 on the road before finally opening in the friendly confines of Pete Mathews Coliseum on Sept. 13 against Tennessee Tech.