The ISU volleyball team will open its home schedule this Friday at noon against Southern Mississippi, followed by a 6 p.m. matchup with Arizona State.

The No. 19 Cyclones (3-0) opened their 2011 season last weekend with three wins at the Northern Illinois Invitational over Cincinnati, IUPUI and Northern Illinois.

“I like our start to the season,” said ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “There is some room for improvement, but I feel like we have a nice core out there right now. It’s going to be a busy week for us, but I like where we’re at. I really like our start to the season.”

Southern Mississippi (3-0) is coming off a weekend in which it won the Southern Miss Invitational on its home court by defeating Chattanooga, Northwestern State and Jackson State, dropping just one set all weekend.

“I don’t know what we have in competition in Southern Mississippi; I do know that they’ve always been pretty good,” said sophomore libero Kristen Hahn. “We’re all really excited to play at home and see what kind of crowd we can bring out on Friday. Hopefully we get a lot of students out.”

The Golden Eagles will enter the game led by libero Lisa Knecht, who registered her 1,000th career dig over the weekend. The senior was named the MVP of the Southern Miss Invitational.

Arizona State (2-1) is coming off a 3-1 loss to San Jose State in the finale of the Sheraton Classic.

ASU junior middle blocker Erica Wilson garnered the tournament’s MVP award after her 31-kill weekend in which she registered a .328 attack percentage.

“They have a great coach, I know some of the players just from watching them in club. We’re going to have to play really well to beat them,” Johnson-Lynch said. “They’re not going to make a lot of mistakes. They aren’t going to let us off the hook with a lot of errors. We’re going to have to play well to have a shot.”

Regardless of who their competition might be, several Cyclone players said they were just ready to play in front of a home crowd again for the first time all year.

“We had the scrimmage here, but that’s just not the same as a game,” said junior setter Alison Landwehr. “We’re definitely ready to show what we have coming off an undefeated weekend. We want to come back and show our fans what we’ve been working on and where we stand.”

The Cyclones will open Iowa State Invitational play at noon on Friday in Hilton Coliseum against Southern Mississippi.