Southeast Missouri State University women's club volleyball team is looking for female students to add to its roster for the 2012 season.

"Club volleyball is more competitive and more structured, and the t-shirts are better than intramurals, too," Southeast club volleyball president Kristen Stermon said. "You get to travel and play other teams from other schools. We go as far as upper Illinois to Kirksville, Mo. It's a really good experience as far as diversifying who you play against."

The club is student-run and travels and plays competitively against other clubs in the Midwest region. Stermon says that there could be as many as three teams this semester competing in tournaments and matches.

"Currently we have 12 players and 66 interested members that will have to go through tryouts," Stermon said. "In tryouts we look at basic skills, have drills and then we evaluate the girls on their skill level, and then we place them on a team that we think is appropriate for them."

Tryouts are from 7-9 p.m. on Sept. 9 and 8-10 p.m. on Sept. 11. at the Student Recreation Center-North. Tournaments and games are yet to be determined, but practices will be held on Sundays and Tuesdays every week.

"A lot of the girls here are my best friends now, and I live with a few of them," Stermon said. "That's pretty memorable, meeting them when I was a freshman and developing a good enough relationship to make them my best friends."

While Stermon has spent a lot of time with her teammates and made new friends, she's also made memories with rivals throughout her time.

"Mizzou is our rival," Stermon said. "We go to the Mizzou Invitational every single year and they have three teams, and we have usually have two teams. But they host a big tournament with twenty teams, and every single year we have to play Mizzou first. We know a lot of their girls, so they're pretty much our rivals."

Stermon also added that Truman State University has been one of the top teams in the club volleyball league. She's excited to get back on the court and play them again after finishing second behind the Bulldogs last season.

"There was one tournament we were playing in, and I think we were playing Truman State University," Stermon said. "But we drove up in a snowstorm, and we actually came in second in the tournament and we lost to the No. 1 Truman team. They were really good."

Most of the team's expenses for traveling and competing in tournaments are paid for by money raised at fundraisers and working on campus. The players will be scorekeeping and line judging the Southeast volleyball team's home games, which will raise an estimated $700 by the end of the year.

"I'm really looking forward to everything, just all the new girls and seeing them develop this season," Stermon said.

For more information on the team, email kmstermon1s@semo.edu or visit the "SEMO Women's Club Volleyball" page on Facebook.