ST. PAUL, MINN. – Since last November, the St. Catherine University volleyball team has been preparing for the first Friday in September. Why? Because September 2, 2016 is officially the first day of competition for the 2016 Wildcats.  

St. Kate's jumps right into the season with a trip to the Sugar Loaf Classic at Saint Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota. The Wildcats won't play their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) foe Saint Mary's until later in the season, but they will have a chance to face four strong teams from other conferences.

St. Kate's will play two matches Friday and two Saturday. The team opens their season with a 4 p.m. match against Luther College on Friday, then plays Finlandia University at 8 p.m. On Saturday, the Wildcats play St. Norbert College at 2 p.m. and close the tournament with a 4 p.m. match against Carroll University.

For those interested in watching, live stats will be available throughout the tournament and scores will be updated on Twitter at @stkateswildcats.

Here are the numbers to know before first serve on Friday:

10 – St. Kate's was picked to finish 10^th in the MIAC preseason coaches poll. Last season, the Wildcats finished tied for eighth with conference rival the University of St. Thomas and won more conference and regular season games than they had in the last two seasons combined.

2012 – Shanee Herd (Alexandria, Minn. / Jefferson) earned All-MIAC honors after the 2015 season and was the first Wildcat to do so since 2012. Herd was not only one of the best liberos in the conference, but in the nation as well. She led the team and the MIAC with 675 digs and averaged 6.19 digs per set, which was ranked second in the MIAC and fifth in Division III.

2 – Herd will be joined by Abby Palmer (Pequot Lakes, Minn. / Pequot Lakes) as one of the only two seniors on St. Kate's team this season. Palmer played a key role in the Wildcat defense last season and is expected to do so again in 2016. Palmer recorded 278 digs in 2015 and was top-25 in the MIAC in both digs and digs per set, with an average of 2.90.

11 – Eleven underclassmen make up St. Kate's 15-man roster this season. Five of those 11 are first year players, while the other six are sophomores returning for their second year with the Wildcats.

4 – St. Kate's will play four opponents from three different conferences at the Sugar Loaf Classic this weekend. Luther hails from the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC), Finlandia competes in the Golden State Athletics Conference (GSAC), St. Norbert is from the Midwest Conference (MWC), and Carroll recently transitioned to the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW).

3 – The Wildcats compiled a 3-0 record against Luther and St. Norbert in 2015. St. Kate's beat the Green Knights 3-1 both times the teams met in 2015, first by a score of 3-1 at the Ripon Tournament in September then by a score of 3-2 at UW-Whitewater. The Wildcats upset Luther College 3-2 at the St. Kate's Invite in October last season.