The Georgia Southern volleyball Eagles (8-8, 1-0) opened Southern Conference play with a 3-1 match win over Wofford Thursday night in the Old Hanner Fieldhouse Gym.
    Powered by 11 kills from Meredith Paskert and 10 kills from Bethany Sanford the Eagles rallied from a first-set loss.
    GSU was aided by 14 service errors and held the Terriers to just two service aces. Hannah Nelson added nine kills to the winning effort and led the team with three service aces. Nelson was second on the team with a .398 hitting percentage.
    GSU bounced back from an opening set loss to Wofford. The Terriers were held to just a .176 hitting percentage in the first set but pulled off a 25-22 set win. The Eagles rebounded from a .114 first-set hitting percentage and posted stellar marks of .385 and .412 in the second and third sets to win 25-19, 25-15 respectively. Georgia Southern hit just .098 in the fourth set but won 25-19 due in part to a match-low .089 hitting percentage by the Terriers.
    Kate Van Dyke recorded 39 of the team's 46 assists to help run the Eagles offense. Van Dyke also tallied six kills and eight digs while posting a .417 hitting percentage.
    Amanda Liguori led Wofford with 13 kills but was held to a .186 hitting percentage on 43 attempts. Arden Anderson and Rachel Woodlee both recorded 11 kills for the Terriers, while Reagan Styles tallied 23 digs.
    Lauren LaRocque led Georgia Southern's defensive efforts with 17 digs and was one of three players to post double-digit digs. Sanford was second on the team with 11 digs while Hayli Ketner recorded 10.

GSU heads to Vandy links
    The Georgia Southern golf team continues its fall campaign today at it travels to Franklin, Tenn. for the Mason Rudolph Championships.
    The three-day tournament will be hosted by Vanderbilt University at the Vanderbilt Legends Club and action will take place on the par-71, 7,100 yard South Course.
    The field will include some of the best Division I teams from the southeast and will be another early test for the Eagles.

GSU women open SoCon play
    After earning a home, 2-0  win against USC Upstate to close non-conference play, Georgia Southern Women’s Soccer (2-4-1) travels for a pair of matches at Wofford and Furman today and Sunday.
    The Eagles open Southern Conference play against Wofford 6 p.m. and close the weekend doubleheader at Furman on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Eagles serve up new season
The Georgia Southern men’s tennis team returns to the courts today as it begins the fall part of the 2011-12 schedule at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships in Athens, Ga.
    Participants from 26 schools will converge on the Dan Magill Tennis Complex to compete in the oldest fall college tennis tournament in America.

The Eagles have been hard at work preparing for the fall schedule and the hours put in over the summer have enabled the team to build some momentum heading into their first match.