BANNER ELK, N.C.- Taking on a pair of quality opponents in the University of South Carolina-Aiken and Lees-McRae College on Saturday, the Palm Beach Atlantic University volleyball team knew they would need a top notch effort to come away with a pair of victories. The young Fish did just that against both tough opponents as they battled to a 3-1 win over USCA and a dominating 3-0 win over the host Bobcats of LMC for a 3-0 tournament record.

Junior Janeen McCormick paced the Sailfish attack in the four-game opener as she tallied a career-high 15 kills against the Pacers while producing just one hitting error for a fantastic .667 hitting percentage as the Blue and White pulled off the victory by the scores of 25-15, 22-25, 25-18, and 25-13.

Backing up the solid play of McCormick in Saturday’s opener was Quesada who tallied 11 kills while adding in five block assists as an asset on the front line. Junior Lanae Robinson also posted a solid showing from the middle-blocker position as she added eight block assists and one solo block as the Sailfish limited USC-Aiken to an .035 team hitting percentage for the match.

Junior Jessica Way continued her good work from the setter position as she managed a tournament-high 44 assists in the victory as she set up the Sailfish attack play after play.

Transitioning into the starting libero position early this season, junior Allie Warren continued to show progress as she tallied a match career-high in digs with 24 as the Fish totaled 54 digs as a team.

A sign of things to come later in the day, the Fish offensive attack appeared to get stronger as the match went along as they did not have an attacking error in the fourth set while posting 13 kills and a .419 team attacking percentage.

Against the host Bobcats of Lees-McRae, the Sailfish looked to close out their time in North Carolina with another big win against a quality opponent. Perhaps feeding off the momentum they gained in their previous match of the day, the Fish dominated from the opening serve against LMC and cruised to a 3-0 victory with scores of 25-14, 25-21-, and 25-10.

This match would belong to Quesada who much like McCormick the match before appeared to find a kill with each swing of her powerful right arm. Seemingly gaining energy as the match progressed, Quesada earned a match-high of 20 kills against only one hitting error and 28 total attacks for an impressive .679 attacking percentage for the match.

Senior Jennifer Eldridge was next in line for PBA with five kills while the Palm Beach Gardens native added in eight defensive digs as she continued her solid play from the back-row. Way would chip in 23 assists in the victory with a pair of service aces, three block assists and seven digs to her credit as well.

As a team, the Fish registered a .278 attacking percentage as they improved to 3-0 to start the young season.

Entering their contest with Lees-McRae, the coaching staff knew a key ingredient to gaining a victory could be in attempting to limit the success of LMC middle-blocker Whitney Justice. Although Justice would be active throughout the match, the All-American would tally only seven kills and a .130 attacking percentage as the Fish front-line did a solid job in limiting Justice impact.

PBA will have their home opener on Tuesday, September 7th as they welcome in Ave Maria University at 7 p.m. for a match in the Rubin Arena.