Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 CLINTON, Miss. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) volleyball team opened the 2016 season with a tri-match sweep of the Mississippi College (MC) Choctaws and the William Carey University Lady Crusaders in A.E. Wood Coliseum. SHC began the day with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-20) decision over the host Choctaws and then cruised to a 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-15) victory over the Lady Crusaders.

The season's first set was a back-and-forth affair as the teams traded the first 24 points to knot the score at 6-6, 9-9 and 12-12. The Choctaws (0-1) then broke away for a 15-12 advantage, but the Badgers rallied to grab a late 20-18 lead highlighted by a kill from senior outside hitter Molly Griffin from Westlake Village, Calif., following a set by redshirt freshman setter Anna Tietjens of St. Louis, Mo. SHC led by as much as 23-19, but MC fought back to slice it to a 23-21 Badger lead, resulting in a Badger timeout. Out of the timeout, Tietjens recorded a kill off a set by freshman outside hitter Payton Gidney of Grapevine, Texas, to regain the momentum while a service error by the Choctaws closed out the set with a 25-22 win for the visiting Badgers.

In the second set, the competition was just as intense as SHC clawed out to a 7-5 early lead, but MC rebounded to tie the set at 19-19 before taking a 23-22 edge. A timeout by Badger head coach Peggy Martin settled down the young Badgers and the purple clad ladies calmly rattled off the set's last three points with the final two tallies coming via service aces by freshman right side hitter Sarah Senft of Spring Grove, Pa.

The third set proved to be another battle as SHC held a 12-9 advantage then MC stormed back to tie the score at 12-12. Once again, SHC answered the challenge by building out a 17-14 bulge and won the final race to the finish line in a 7-6 sprint to 24-20 before a kill by junior middle hitter Katelyn Bobinger of Mobile's McGill-Toolen Catholic High School sealed the victory.

Griffin rang up 12 kills and a .265 (12-3-34) attack percentage while Tietjens dished out 35 assists in her debut as the Badger signal caller. Gidney also opened the curtain on her college career with 11 digs, three assists and two aces. As a team, the Badgers hit for a .270 (42-11-115) average with seven aces and 44 digs. The SHC defense limited MC to a .212 (39-17-104) average with 50 digs and two service aces. At the net, however, MC out-blocked the Badgers six (1-10) to one (0-2).

The first-year Lady Crusaders (0-2) hit for just a .024 (23-21-82) average in the second match of the day as SHC coasted to a three-set sweep. The Badgers finished with a .299 (38-12-87) attack percentage with five aces, 34 digs and five (1-8) total blocks. Tietjens distributed 18 more assists while freshman steer Emmarose Neibert of Arnold, Mo., joined in the fun with another 17 assists. Sophomore outside hitter Randi De'Armitt hit for a .500 (9-1-16) average while sophomore middle hitter Emily Greim of McKinney, Texas, had four kills with a solo block and a block assist.

At the end of the event, Martin said, "The first match of the year looked like just that - the first match of the year. We played very inconsistent volleyball from start to finish. We were very lucky to get a win against a veteran scrappy team [Mississippi College]. Senft's two service aces at 23-23 in the second set were definitely huge.

"William Carey is a first-year program and we had an opportunity to let a lot of people play and that was very important with three matches remaining this weekend [in Huntsville]. I was very pleased with our overall effort, but we have lots to improve on to get where we want to be."

The Badgers (2-0) next play on Friday at the 2016 Hilton Garden Inn South UAH Classic in Huntsville, Ala., beginning with the Kentucky Wesleyan College Panthers at noon in Spragins Hall followed by the Ouachita Baptist University Tigers at 2 p.m.