The giants of the nonconference schedule roll in today as the Arizona women's volleyball team plays its last tournament before the start of the Pacific 10 Conference schedule.

The Doubletree Arizona Invitational gets underway today at McKale Center with Cal State-Northridge (0-5), No. 20 Loyola Marymount (3-1) and No. 18 San Diego State (3-3) in town. Matches will take place throughout the day.

"I'm looking forward to playing some better competition and I think the players are too," UA head coach Dave Rubio said.

The Wildcats are 7-0 and have lost only one of their 22 match games. They have recorded two tournament wins, but the corresponding national recognition in the polls has yet to arrive. If they have a good showing at this tournament it should boost them int o the national rankings going into Pac-10 play.

"We haven't proven anything except that we can beat a few mediocre teams," Rubio said.

Loyola Marymount is coming off its second tournament win at the Airport Marina Hotel Volleyball Classic. The Lions defeated New Mexico, Drake and Louisiana State to post a 3-0 mark in their own tournament.

LMU junior Sara Noriega was named Most Valuable Player in the tournament with 5.11 kills per game and eight blocks. The Lions' Karissa Meith and Tracy Holman were also named to the all-tournament team.

San Diego State is coming off a 3-1 loss to No. 2 Stanford on Tuesday. The Aztecs have also been recent victims of No. 15 Southern Cal and No. 17 UC-Santa Barbara.

SDSU is led by All-Western Athletic Conference performers Juliana Cezar and Martina Vitkova. Cezar had her best match of the year against Stanford when she had 19 kills and eight digs. Cezar also leads the team in service aces with 10. Vitkova leads the t eam in kills with 102. She had her best game against UCSB when she racked up 32 kills.

"They are more physical than the teams we have played before," Rubio said. "Loyola and San Diego State will have some players that are more capable of playing at a higher level. They should match up well against us. We're all looking forward to being test ed."

The first team that Arizona will play is Cal State-Northridge. The Matadors are not as good as the Aztecs or the Lions, but they have been playing decent competition. They have already played two ranked teams, including SDSU, to which they lost 1-3. Last Tuesday they played USC and lost 0-3.

Junior college transfer Getty Dimitrova leads the Matadors in both kills with 74 and blocks with 16.

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