WALTHAM, Mass. – The 2022 Bentley University volleyball season will get underway this weekend at the Dana Center with the Falcons hosting American International College, Holy Family University, Purdue-Northwest and Valdosta State in the Hoffman Memorial Tournament.

The tournament honors the late Sandy Hoffman, who won over 750 games as Bentley's head coach from 1982-2013 and is enshrined in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Action will get underway at 10 am Friday and 9 am Saturday with all matches streamed on www.NE10Now.tv.

The first match of the season for coach Joey Pacis' Falcons is at 2:30 pm Friday against Holy Family in a pairing of 2021 NCAA East Regional teams. Bentley will close out Friday's quintet of games with Purdue-Northwest at 7 pm.

On Saturday, the Falcons will take on Valdosta State at 11 am and AIC at 6 pm. Like Bentley and Holy Family, AIC was a tournament team a year ago.

Pacis, who enters this ninth Bentley season with a 119-86 record, returns eight of nine rotation players from last year's team that finished 15-13 overall and tied for fourth in the Northeast-10.

Heading that list are the last two NE10 Rookie of the Years, junior Ellie Wheeler (Olathe, Kans./Saint James Academy) and senior Ingrid Murphy (Cotuit/Barnstable HS). Wheeler (2021) also earned first-team All-Conference honors last year and Murphy (2019) was a third-team honoree last season.

Wheeler had a standout season in 2021 as she amassed 380 kills, led the conference in kills per set and was second in points per set.

Graduate students Amanda Parker (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North HS), Katie Rounds (McFarland, Wis./McFarland HS) and Claudia Gonzalez-Iguina (Ponce, P.R.) are all back for their final year of eligibility. In 2021, Parker produced 9.9 assists, 3.2 digs and 0.5 kills per set.

Pacis bolstered his roster with the addition of a pair of junior transfers, setter Natalie Thom (Okemos, Mich./Okemos HS) and defensive specialist Ali Stuessi (Fairhaven, Mass./Fairhaven HS). Thom came to Bentley from the University of Indianapolis and Stuessi transferred from the University of New Hampshire.

The Hoffman Memorial is the first of three tournaments for the Falcons to launch the season. Thom and her teammates will return to her former school for the UIndy Invitational Sept. 2-3 and the Falcons will also compete in the IVHOF (International Volleyball Hall of Fame) East Region Clash Sept. 9-10 at AIC. That will be a homecoming for Gonzalez, who played for the Yellow Jackets from 2018-21