The Minnesota volleyball team will host its Alumni Match on Saturday, Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Sports Pavilion. The match will feature this year’s current team against Golden Gophers from the past.

Minnesota’s Alumni team will feature 2004 Honorable-Mention All-American Erin Martin, along with 2000 Second-Team All-American Stephanie Hagen. Two-time All-Big Ten Selection (1985 & 86) Pam Dombeck (Miller) will also play for the Alumni, along with a couple of key players from last year’s team in Jen Bowman and Lisa Reinhart.

Admission to the Alumni Match will be free to the public. This will be a chance for Golden Gopher fans to get a preview of volleyball team. Minnesota’s regular-season will begin on Friday, Sept. 2 when it plays North Dakota State in the first match of the Diet Coke Classic at 7:30 p.m.

The Golden Gophers will also play Central Florida on Saturday, Sept. 3 at 12:30 p.m. and Xavier at 7:30 on the same night. Minnesota will finish off Labor Day weekend with a match against No. 1 Nebraska on Monday, Sept. 5 a 1 p.m.

Minnesota enters the season with a preseason ranking of No. 6 in the nation. The Golden Gophers return six letterwinners from last year’s team that went 33-5 and advanced to the national championship.

For the first time in school history, Minnesota also returns a pair of First-Team All- Americans in Kelly Bowman (Maple Grove, Minn.) and Paula Gentil (Forteleaza Ceara’, Brazil). The Golden Gophers also bring in a recruiting class (with six freshmen) that was ranked No. 4 in nation by prepvolleyball.com, along with a pair of transfers in Meghan Cumpston (Red Bluff, Calif./Arizona) and Sarah Florian (Holland, Ohio/USC).