Determining a starting lineup is a challenge for any coach, especially without the reliability of senior leadership.

Head Coach Joel McCartney finds himself in that exact predicament this season as the 2009 Georgia volleyball roster is replete with freshmen, sophomores and juniors.

Following last weekend’s performance in Atlanta in which the Bulldogs posted a 2-1 record in the Georgia Tech Regency Suites Invitational, McCartney got his first opportunity to see what challenges lie ahead for this relatively untested group of players.

Although there are three players with two years of collegiate experience – junior middle hitter Valentina Gonzalez, junior outside hitter Simone May and junior outside hitter Erika Clark – half of the team’s 12 player roster had yet to play above a high school level at the start of the ’09 season.

“Erika Clark has been a two-year starter for us on the outside,” McCartney told UGA Sports Communications. “She is our ball-control, Steady-Eddy person out there on the court. You can always count on her to have that same game night-in and night-out. That’s really an integral role to place on your floor.”

Figuring out which newcomers can contribute on a consistent basis will certainly be a difficult task for McCartney, as the Bulldogs host the Georgia Dawgs Invitational this weekend at the Ramsey Center volleyball complex.

“We’ve been able to take one of the premier players in the state of Georgia and get her on our roster with Lauren Hutchinson as a middle hitter,” McCartney said. “I’m not sure she’ll immediately impact onto the floor for us, but she is a player of the future for us.”

Early contributions from redshirt freshman outside hitter Briana Bahr and true freshman libero Nicole Choi have made McCartney’s job a little easier.

It will be partially on the new Bulldogs’ shoulders as the team opens their home schedule tonight at 7 against Duke – a team that the Bulldogs lost to last season in Raleigh, N.C.

The Bulldogs will also welcome Tennessee State and South Alabama to Ramsey.

After Georgia’s match with Duke, it won’t play again until Saturday when they face Tennessee State at 12:30 p.m. and South Alabama that night at 7.