ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. – The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team swept the Elizabeth City State University Vikings in three sets to win their season opener at the RL Vaughan Center on Friday afternoon. Alaska went 25-6, 25-10 and 25-14 over the Vikings to capture their second-straight season-opening win. Alaska's overall record sits at 1-0, while ESCU moves to 0-1.

"It's always nice to get the 'W' right off the bat and we're really excited about the way we performed tonight," head coach Brian Scott said on Friday. "Offensively, we had some great distribution of the ball to all of our hitters, which made it easy to get the ball down."

Serving proved to be the game-changer on Friday, as the Nanooks tallied 14 service aces over their opponent. Freshman Markie Miller and sophomore Gabby Lerma led all players with four aces each, while sophomore libero Jenna Hickel collected three and freshman setter Cate Whiting registered one.

"I'm really happy how everyone was serving today, which put a lot of pressure on our opponent on the serve receive," Scott continued.

Thirty-eight of Alaska's 75 points throughout the match were kills, led by Miller, who tallied 11 of 18 attempts for the game-high. Following Miller, freshman Lahra Weber posted a game-high hitting percentage of .889, capitalizing on eight of nine total attempts. Of the 12 Nanooks who appeared in Friday's game, 10 posted at least one kill.

As a team, Alaska posted a hitting percentage of .462, going 38-of-65 with only eight attack errors. The Nanooks' best set came in the first, when Alaska went 9-of-15 for a .533 hitting percentage.

"It's nice to have players out there who have really strong arms and who we can rely on to make sure the ball hits the floor," Scott said of his team's offense. "Lahra and Markie can pass, they can hit and they can defend, which really makes them great six-position players. With them on the floor at all times, it helps the team get into a rhythm and helps us not have to use so many substitutes on the floor."

Sophomore Kim Wong was the only Nook to register a solo block on the night, but Miller and senior Maddie Davis both collected a block assist to help the Nooks record 2.0 team blocks on the night.

Senior setter Rachel Nichols led the Nooks with nine assists, while freshman setter Cate Whiting and Hickel followed closely behind with six and five assists, respectively.

Defensively, Alaska tallied 19 digs throughout the night with Hickel leading the charge with eight by herself.

On the other end of the court, ECSU's Jahera Dangerfield led the Vikings with four kills, while the Vikings combined for 13 kills against the Nanooks altogether. ESCU collected 16 digs, 12 assists, three service aces and 2.0 team blocks against the Nanooks in their first game of the season, as well.

"Our biggest struggle tonight was a couple moments where we missed some responsibilities on the floor by not correctly executing our systems. I think with the majority of our team being so young, it's easy to get mixed up but going forward, we are hoping to have our systems down in a match or two," Scott concluded. "Going into the tournament tomorrow, we would love to be able to run the offense we had going tonight and have multiple people continue to compete and stay strong."

The Alaska Nanooks will take on Kutztown University and the University of Mount Olive tomorrow (Sept. 2) in the opening day of the Viking Virginia Beach Invitational, hosted by ESCU at the Tidewater Volleyball Arena in Virginia Beach. Alaska's first game vs. Kutztown will begin at 8am AKT, while the afternoon game is slated for 11am AKT.

All games throughout the weekend will be streamed live through the Alaska Nanooks volleyball Facebook page.

For more information on the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team, follow @NanooksVB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Volleyball team page on Facebook.