Island at the New York/Bermuda Invitational Volleyball Tournament in New Rochelle, New York.

The eight women have been invited to compete in the six-a-side indoor tournament on Saturday and have been training diligently for the last three months for the tournament.

The Bermuda team, nicknamed the Longtails, is made up of captain Lisa Dragon, Denise Somerville, Tara DeVlaming, Wendy Cummings, Judy Readwin, Juanity Blee, Beverly Kaplen and Cindy Hamilton.

Dragon, an American, has been a resident of Bermuda for six years and has been playing competitive volleyball for 20 years. In addition to being active as a player in Bermuda, Dragon has also served as president of the Bermuda Volleyball Association.

Dragon has also coached the senior girls and boys teams at Saltus for the past four years.

Somerville is a Bermudian and graduated from Mount Saint Agnes where she was the first female student to be presented with the Hall of Fame Achievement Award for volleyball and basketball.

DeVlaming moved to Bermuda from Edmonton, Alberta in May 1995. Readwin, another Canadian, played in the A Division of a member of the Ontario Volleyball Association for three years before coming to Bermuda in 1988.

Blee attended high school in Toronto, where she started playing volleyball in 1983. Upon returning to Bermuda, Blee continued competing as well as serving as an administrator.

Bermuda-born Kaplen is also a graduate of Mount Saint Agnes where she started playing volleyball at the age of 12.

She played on the Mount Saint Vincent University varsity team and was elected president of the BVA in 1991.

The final member of the team is American Cindy Hamilton, who played at the University of Wisconsin. She has been an active player here since arriving in 1989.

The tournament is being organised and hosted by the men's team that represented the United States in the International Senior Games this April in Bermuda. Four teams from New York and New Jersey will compete in addition to Bermuda.