The College of Charleston defeated James Madison, 3-1 (30-15, 29-31, 30-25, 31-29), in the opening match of the Illinois-Chicago Volleyball Invitational at the Flames Athletic Center on Friday.

With the win the Cougars improved to 3-0 on the season. JMU fell to 1-1. The Cougars take on host UIC in an 8:00 start later today.

Kaycie Carr had 50 assists while teammates Rebecca Wieters ad Amanda Timmers added 15 and 12 kills each, respectively. The Dukes got 50 assists from Krysta Cannon and 18 kills from Allyson Halls.

Marie Dobrenz had a team-high 23 digs for the Cougars. Wieters added six service aces. The Cougars held a 15-3 edge in total blocks including Annie Uthe’s seven block assists.

The Cougars held the Dukes to a .097 attack percentage in the opening game. For the match, the Cougars had a .331 attack percentage while the Dukes finished at .241.

College of Charleston 3, Illinois-Chicago 0

The College of Charleston defeated Illinois-Chicago 3-0 (30-24, 30-24, 30-25), in its second match of the Illinois-Chicago Volleyball Invitational at the Flames Athletic Center on Friday.

The win gives the Cougars a 4-0 mark, their best start since starting the 1997 with a 6-0 record. The Flames fall to 0-4 on the season.

Tiffany Blum and Amanda Timmers led the Charleston attack with nine kills apiece, while Rebecca Wieters and Annie Uthe added eight each. Alexis Lowes led defensively with 14 digs and was one of four Cougars with double-digit kills.

UIC’s Maura McCarthy led the Flames with 14 kills, while Liz Hrebic paced the team with 17 digs.

After the first day of action in the tournament, College of Charleston is 2-0, followed by James Madison (1-1), Bowling Green (1-1), Denver (1-1) and UIC (0-2).

The Cougars continue tournament action, taking on Bowling Green at 10:00 am Saturday, before facing Denver in a 5:30 match.

Fairfield 3, Furman 0

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Furman’s Lady Paladin volleyball team opened the 2005 season with a 30-25, 31-29, 30-22 loss to Fairfield, Friday in the opening match of the 2005 Florida Atlantic University Invitational.

The Lady Paladins outhit Fairfield .211 to .179, and outblocked their opponent 11.0 to 8.0, but were unable to pull out a victory in the season opener, and fell to 0-1, while Fairfield improved to 2-2.

Junior Ally Hock (Oviedo, Fla.) paced the Lady Paladins with 10 kills, 14 digs, and four block assists, while Whitney Purser (Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla.) and Kerry Wooten (Hamptonville, N.C.) each added nine kills and sophomore middle blocker Celestee Wilson (Prairieville, La.) contributed six block assists.  Setter Courtney Stewardson (Apple Valley, Minn.) topped the team with a .400 attack percentage (6K, 2E, 10TA), and tallied 31 assists for the match.

Fairfield was paced by Jasmin Pa’akaula, who tallied 10 kills and 11 digs.  Casey Machon added nine kills, while Lauren Campbell servued up three of Fairfield’s 10 service aces.

Furman returns to action on Saturday with matches against Bethune Cookman and the host Owls of FAU.

ETSU 3, UNC Greensboro 1

RICHMOND, VA ? The UNC Greensboro women’s volleyball team dropped its season-opener, 3-1, to East Tennessee State in the opening round of the VCU Tournament Friday afternoon at Alltel Pavilion. The setback was the inaugural game for first-year Spartan head coach Shawn Garus.

Junior Hilary Overby led UNCG (0-1) with 16 kills against only two errors for an impressive .389 hitting percentage. Sophomore Lauren Keiser added 14 kills and 12 digs.  Overby and freshman Kaitlyn Nortz, in her collegiate debut, each collected six blocks apiece.

ETSU (1-0) won the opening game 30-20, before the Spartans stormed back to even the match 1-1 with a 30-20 win in game two. From there, the Lady Bucs squeaked out a 30-26 win in game three and dominated the final game by a

30-12 score.

Brittany Kessel paced four ETSU players in double figures in kills with a game-high 18 put aways. Jennifer Sartor added 15 kills, while Callie Kiselich and Sarah Buhr put down 13 and 11 kills respectively.

Sophomore Alysia Rosvold led the UNCG defensive attack with 13 digs, while senior Adrian Hicks dished out a team-topping 37 assists and came up with

11 digs.

UNCG will take on Radford tomorrow at 10:30 am in second day action of the VCU Tournament. The Spartans will then battle the host Rams at 5:30 pm.

UNC Asheville 3, Chattanooga 1

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The Chattanooga volleyball team fell 1-3 in the team’s season-opener at the North Carolina A&T Terry LaBonte Classic at the Greensboro Sports Complex Friday night.

It was a nail biter as the Lady Mocs kept it close. The Bulldogs won the first game by a narrow 30-25 margin. Chattanooga fought back and evened it up after two with a 30-26 decision. After the break, Asheville came back to go up two games to one with a 30-26 win. In the fourth game, UNCA won by the slimmest of margins at 27-30 to close it out.

Lady Mocs’ senior Lindsey Galloway notched a game-high 20 kills and freshman Kari Wiedinger had 13 in her first collegiate contest.  Three Chattanooga players had double-digit digs led by freshman Lara Newberry with 20. Sophomores Kelsey Amundson and Bethany Herndon tallied 10 apiece.

Chattanooga, 0-1, tallied 62 kills, 63 digs and 15 total blocks on the night. The two teams were closely matched as the Bulldogs had 70 kills, 64 digs and 17 blocks. Four Asheville players registered double-digit kills led by Elif Unlu with 18. Allison Lambert had 16 and two others had 10 each.

Chattanooga will take on host North Carolina A&T in a morning contest and close out the tournament with an afternoon tilt against UNC Wilmington.

Kentucky 3, Western Carolina 0

Cullowhee, N.C. - The Western Carolina volleyball team fell in straight sets, 3-0 (30-23, 30-12, 30-24) to the Kentucky Wildcats Friday night in first-day action at the Big Orange Bash, hosted by Clemson University.

"Even though we still lost in three, we played much better tonight that we did in our opening tournament at Middle Tennessee State," said first-year head coach Stephanie Dragan. "Saturday brings two more tough tests for our squad, especially with the back-to-back format that we'll have to play."

Despite hitting a season-best .163, the Catamount offense again struggled to find a rhythm for the third time on the early season. Sophomore Meredith Harmon led the way for the Cats, finishing with nine kills. Junior Heather Koontz and senior Ellie Talbot each tallied five kills apiece, with sophomore Danielle Spitzer adding four.

Junior Meghan Boyle led the team with six digs on the night, adding team-highs in assists with 17 and a pair of service aces in the loss. Also, Kate Willard and Tracey Justus each added five digs apiece.

Kentucky's Danielle Wallace led all hitters with 15 kills, hitting an impressive .619 for the match. As a team, the Wildcats hit .494.

Western returns to action at Noon on Saturday for the first of back-to-back matches. The Catamounts face the host Tigers at Noon and will battle the UConn Huskies at 2:30 pm. Fans can follow the action on GameTracker for the Western-Clemson match at Noon by visiting www.ClemsonTigers.com and clicking the "GameTracker" link in the schedule box.