Pointer notes Women's Golf The Pointers open their season this weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Invitational with a 36-hole tournament. The tournament begins with 18 holes Saturday and concludes with 18 more on Sunday at Mill Run Golf Course. UW-Stevens Point finished third in the six-team WIAC race last season. Women's Soccer Even though over nine months have passed, the memories are still fresh for the UW-SP women's soccer team as it prepares for its season opener on Friday at St. Thomas. The Tommies knocked the Pointers out of last year's NCAA Division III playoffs on Nov. 16 with a stinging 3-0 win at the Pointer Soccer Bowl. It was the Pointers' only loss of the season. The teams are both nationally ranked in this year's preseason poll and square off in an appealing season-opening match Friday at 2 p.m. in St. Paul, Minn. UW-SP was 18-1-2 last year and is ranked 11th in the preseason poll by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, while St. Thomas is pegged 22nd in the preseason rankings. UW-SP, which is also predicted to win its seventh straight Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference crown, opens its home season Sunday at 2 p.m. against Lawrence at the Pointer Soccer Bowl. It will be the first time the Pointers and Vikings have met since 1990. Volleyball Facing some of the top NCAA Division III competition isn't exactly the perfect way to start for a team with eight freshmen and three sophomores, but the UW-SP volleyball team will put its young players to the test this weekend at the Elmhurst Invitational in Elmhurst, Ill. The Pointers open on Friday at 4 p.m. with the host Bluejays, who are ranked 10th in the American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason rankings. Also in the tournament are top-ranked Washington (Mo.) and 15th-ranked Wartburg (Iowa). The Pointers will take on Wilmington (Ohio), which was 4-24 last season, in its second match on Friday before facing two other opponents on Saturday. Also taking part are Hope (Mich.), Illinois Wesleyan, Simpson (Iowa) and UW-Oshkosh. UW-SP was 8-26 last season and returns six letterwinners from last year's squad. The Pointers are predicted to finish seventh in the WIAC preseason rankings.