VIENNA, West Virginia -- On Tuesday night, the Malone University volleyball program opened their season with a Great Midwest Athletic Conference match at Ohio Valley University. 

The Pioneers (1-0, 1-0 G-MAC). were in control early on, and were never really challenged for much of the evening on their way to a 3-0 win over the Fighting Scots (0-1, 0-1 G-MAC).

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Led by an outstanding attack percentage (.478), the Pioneers opened up a big lead in the opening set. The Fighting Scots actually scored the opening point of the match, but Malone quickly grabbed the lead and never looked back.

In total, the Pioneers recorded kills on 12 of their 23 attack attempts, and forced several OVU errors to help secure a 25-8 win. 

The second set was tightly contested early on, before a big Malone run midway through helped propel the Pioneers to a 25-16 victory. With senior Abbie Swaino serving, the Pioneers rattled off five unanswered points to grab an 18-9 advantage. They went on to answer every Fighting Scots point down the stretch in order to grab a 2-0 match lead. 

Every Malone player on the roster saw court time in the final set to help close out the match with a 25-20 win. Ohio Valley made things interesting, cutting an early defecit down to just three points at one point, before ultimately the Pioneers prevailed. 

PIONEER POINTS

• Sophomore Anna Mallette led the way for Malone with 14 points. She had a team-high 13 kills and also added a service ace. 

• Fellow classmate Cierra Gurney added six kills for the Pioneers, while Brooklyn Sullivan and Anna Hopple each totaled five. Hopple also made an impact from the service line, putting down four aces in the contest. 

• Defensively, Mallette and Molly Bullion tied for the team lead with nine digs each. 

WHAT'S NEXT?
Malone travels to Cedarville University this weekend. Friday night's match is set to begin at 7:00 p.m.