This weekend Northern Kentucky University will host the Great Lakes Region Crossover, the largest volleyball tournament at any NCAA level in the 2003 season.

The tournament has participants from three different conferences; the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC), the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) and the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC). In all, the tournament will have 18 teams playing a total of 36 games in two days.

“This is going to bring a lot of activity, and people, to the campus,” said head Volleyball Coach, Carlos Chia. “There will be hundreds of people; players, coaches, parents and fans, on campus for the weekend.”

Although this isn’t the first year for the tournament, in previous years the tournament only had teams from the WVIAC and the GLVC conferences.

This year the GLIAC joined the tournament to make it the largest tournament in the country.

Last season NKU went 3-0 in the tournament, beating Wheeling Jesuit, West Virginia Wesleyan and Fairmont State.

Teams from Wisconsin to West Virginia are going to be taking part in the event. Play begins at noon on Friday and concludes at 5:30 pm on Saturday. The matches will be played in Regents Hall and in the Albright Health Center.

“The teams coming in here to play in this will make our team that much more competitive,” said Chia.