RICHMOND, VA – The UNC Greensboro women's volleyball team dropped its season-opener, 3-2, to East Tennessee State in the opening round of the VCU/Third Degree Sportswear Invitational 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 win the next two games, 30-20 and 30-26, to take a 2-1 lead. From there, the Lady Bucs dominated the next game by a 30-12 score and went on to a 15-9 win in the fifth and final game.

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.

AGATE

ETSU def. UNC Greensboro 3-2 (30-20, 20-30, 26-30, 30-12, 15-9)