MARIETTA — On Saturday afternoon the Capital University volleyball team kicked off their season with a two-match split at the Marietta College River City Classic.

In match one, Cap was on the wrong end of a lengthy, back-and-forth five set match against Franklin College. In match two, the Purple and White made easy work of Washington and Jefferson College in a three set sweep. 

The win over the Presidents in match two proved to be the first in the head coaching career for Nikki Van Cleave. 

Several Capital players had impressive days on the court. Delanie Nahikian led all Cap hitters with a combined 32 kills. Further impressing Nahikian's day was the fact she reached double-digit digs in both matches as well, combining for 31 digs. The senior now sits at 498 career kills, just two away from the career mark of 500. 

Alissa Holler also had an impressive afternoon hitting the ball as she combined for 22 kills, including 18 vs. Franklin. Balancing out the offense were two setters in senior Jenay Kocsis and freshman Jordyn Hoffman. Kocsis combined for 43 assists, while Hoffman tallied 30 in her first two collegiate games. 

Defensively, senior Erin O'Connell led the team in digs with 44 across the eight sets of play. Paree Furness had 26 and Miranda Jordan had 22 digs as well. 

Capital also served well across the two matches, racking up 17 aces, including six from Miranda Jordan.

MATCH ONE: Franklin def. Capital 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-27, 15-13)
In the opening set, Capital found themselves level at 4-4 early on, but a five serve rally from Miranda Jordan helped push Capital ahead. Two Jordan aces sandwiched a kill by Nahikian and an attack error from Franklin to vault the Purple and White out to an 8-4 lead. Franklin would put together a run of their own shortly after to re-take the lead 10-9. The lead was short lived however as Capital rattled off four straight points to take a lead that they would fail to relinquish across the end of the set. Eventually, a kill by Nahikian sealed the set in Cap's favor, 25-22. 

Franklin rallied back to take sets two and three by scores of 25-21 and 25-18. 

On the ropes, Capital needed overtime to force a fifth set. After truly trading points for much of the set, the teams were deadlocked at 25 all. CU used the overtime period to clinch the set. First, Nahikian got a kill off a feed from Jordyn Hoffman, before she teamed up with Grace Grundy to block the final Franklin attack to take the set 27-25.

In the decisive frame, it once again proved to be a point-for-point affair. Locked at 13 each, Franklin got two kills from Billie Jarrett to take the match, 3-2. 

MATCH TWO: Capital def. Washington & Jefferson (25-20, 25-20, 25-17)
Trailing 7-4 early in the first set, Capital scored seven straight points to establish control on the set. A kill from Caleigh Hamby sparked the rally and then Miranda a Jordan controlled matters once again from the service line. In the brief outburst, Jordan tallied two of her match-high three aces. From there, Capital held the upper hand and sealed the set win on an attacking error from the Presidents.

Set two was similar to set one, aside from the fact that Cap lead nearly wire-to-wire. Offensive woes for W&J continued enabling Capital to get ahead early and a decent attacking set which featured 13 kills from CU allowed them to close out the set, 25-20.

Ready to go home for the day, Capital breezed through the final set and closed out the Presidents by a final score of 25-17. The Purple and White scored nine of the last 11 points of the set to grab their first win of the year. 

Looking ahead, Capital will return to the court on September 8th at Oberlin College before heading home on September 10th and 11th as they host the Pam Briggs Classic. Capital will play Case Western Reserve at 5 p.m. on Friday before hosting Geneva and Hanover on Saturday. Mount Union and Franklin will also feature at the tournament on separate courts. Live stats and video, as well as a complete tournament schedule can be found at the following link.