Aug. 17, 2012

OXFORD, Miss. – With the Ole Miss volleyball season just one week away, the team will showcase its hard work during the fall camp with its annual Red-Blue Scrimmage on Saturday.

The Red-Blue Scrimmage, which runs in conjunction with Meet The Rebels Day, will start Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT at the Gillom Sports Center. Admission to the intrasquad scrimmage is free, as the Rebels prepare for their season opener in the Hurricane Invitational against Miami (Fla.) on Aug. 24 in Coral Gables, Fla.

“It’s an exciting time of year here at Ole Miss with Meet The Rebels on Saturday and 5,000 fans coming through and meeting the girls,” Ole Miss volleyball head coach Joe Getzin said. “We’re hoping the fans will come through and head over to the Gillom Center after that and see the girls put on a show in the Red-Blue Scrimmage.”

Festivities at Meet the Rebels Day begin with the football team scrimmage at 9:30 a.m. at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Afterward, fans can make their way to the Indoor Practice Facility, which opens its doors at 11:30 a.m.

As the IPF opens, the Rebel soccer and volleyball teams will be greeting fans and signing autographs. Several Ole Miss coaches and administrators will be interviewed, beginning with football head coach Hugh Freeze at 12:15 p.m. Other guests include Athletics Director Ross Bjork, Getzin, soccer head coach Matt Mott and others.

The volleyball team scrimmage will not only give the fans their first glimpse of the 2012 Rebels, but it will also give the student-athletes a chance to work out a few pre-season jitters and get acclimated with a game day routine.

“This gives us an opportunity to go through a game day rehearsal more than anything else,” Getzin said. “We’ll get the warm-ups out of the way and have the kids get comfortable with what to expect there. Hopefully we’ll get to unleash the horses a little bit and let them showcase what they’ve gotten through preseason with. It should be an exciting day.”

Ole Miss will be led this season, in part, by seniors Allegra Wells and Amanda Philpot. Wells, the team’s leader in kills from one season ago with 290, enters the 2012 campaign coming off a busy offseason that saw her train with Olympic gold medalist and Ole Miss alumnus Brittney Reese in the long jump. Philpot, a setter from Cincinnati, Ohio, led the Rebels with 964 assists last season. Her 8.84 assists per set average ranked eighth in the conference. An aggressive setter, Philpot also recorded 178 kills, the fourth most on the team last season, and the third most among returning players.

The Rebels will have experience on their side this season, returning eight combined juniors and seniors to the team, but will also have plenty of youth, with seven freshmen or redshirt freshmen.

For all Ole Miss volleyball news and information, go to OleMissSports.com, and follow the team on Twitter at “OleMissVB” and on Facebook at “Ole Miss Volleyball.”