(October 10, 2002)                                                                                          Hot News Main Page

2003 USPV Schedule Released
Increased Weekend Dates Highlight Expanded Slate

OAKBROOK TERRACE IL (October 10, 2002) United States Professional Volleyball (USPV), the premier women's professional indoor volleyball league, today released its 2003 schedule

In 2003, each team will play a 20-match schedule (10 home, 10 away), with 75 percent of all matches being played on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

USPV, showcasing the best women's professional indoor volleyball athletes in the world, features teams in Chicago (Thunder), Grand Rapids (Force), St. Louis (Quest) and Rochester, Minn. (Minnesota Chill).

With the two-match increase, teams will play an unbalanced schedule in 2003, either facing an opponent six or seven times.

In 2002, only 39 percent of USPV matches were played on weekend dates. However, USPV teams enjoyed a 60 percent attendance increase in matches played on the weekends in 2002.

League runner-up Chicago drew 115 percent more fans to its three weekend matches last season, while Minnesota averaged 99 percent capacity on weekend matches in 2002.

The 2003 season opens Friday, January 10 when the Minnesota Chill begins defense of its USPV championship against the Chicago Thunder at the Mayo Civic Center Auditorium in Rochester, Minn. in highly anticipated rematch of last year's championship series. The 2003 regular season will run from January to March with playoffs and the 2003 USPV championship series following in April.

The full 2003 USPV schedule is available on the league's website at www.uspv.com.

About USPV
United States Professional Volleyball (USPV) is the premier women's professional indoor volleyball league. USPV, the first United States-based professional sports league to precede a men's league in the same sport, featured 27 collegiate All-American honors and 23 athletes with Olympic training experience on its star-studded rosters in 2002. Fueled by an overwhelmingly successful inaugural season in 2002 that saw the Minnesota Chill win the league championship, USPV will not only showcase the top women's volleyball talent in the world, but it will provide positive role models for today's youth, as well as post-collegiate career opportunities for women.

[Source: Mike Miazga, Director Media Relations, USPV, (630) 575-8827 (office); (847) 344-6554 (cell); mmiazga@uspv.net]