UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.--The Penn State women's volleyball team will begin its title defense in the 2000 State Farm Women's Volleyball Classic against UCLA in the pairings released by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators (NACWAA).

Colorado State and Florida will square off in the other first-round match that will be played Friday and Saturday, August 25-26, at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The tournament will be played at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.

The Nittany Lions and Bruins will be the first match at 5 p.m. and will be followed by the Gators and Rams at 7 p.m. or 30 minutes following the completion of the first match.

The Classic will be the opener to the 2000 collegiate volleyball season and bring together four of the strongest teams in the nation. All four are projected to appear in the top 10 preseason volleyball rankings. This will also be the first time in the six year history of the State Farm Women's Volleyball Classic that an East vs. West match-up will take place in both first-round matches.

The matches will be televised on ESPN and ESPN2 with broadcast times announced at a later date.

Penn State is already familiar with UCLA, who it eliminated in the 1999 Central Regional finals to advance to the Final Four. The Lions went on to win the first women's volleyball national championship in school history.

This will be the fourth year the Lions have played in the season-opening tournament that will be six years old. They also participated in 1995 and 1999 and won it 1997. Previous winners of the event include Stanford (1995), Hawaii (1996), Long Beach State (1998) and Pacific (1999). No team has won the tournament a second time.