BOONE, N.C. – The Norfolk State volleyball team got its season off on the right foot with a 3-1 victory over Sam Houston State on Friday afternoon at the Appalachian Invitational hosted by Appalachian State.

Senior Goda Jankauskaite and sophomore Jessica Johnson carried the NSU offense in the team's season opener, combining for 31 of the team's 46 kills on the day. No other player had more than six.

Redshirt junior Noelle Eagles, meanwhile, totaled 21 digs and in the process became the first NSU player ever to top 1,000 digs for her career. Eagles needed just nine digs coming into the match to reach that mark.

Jankauskaite had a big match as the Spartans won, 22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-12. She finished with 17 kills and just two attack errors while hitting a blistering .469. Johnson, a player the coaching staff identified as needing to step up this year, did just that. She added 14 kills and joined Eagles in double figures in digs with 14.

NSU started slow against the Bearkats, dropping that first set before taking off from there. Johnson and Jankauskaite each had five kills in the fourth set to help NSU pull away. Eagles' service ace finished an 8-2 run to start the fourth set. Jankauskaite eventually had a hand in four of six plays at one point as the Spartans went up 21-10.

Johnson finished the match off with back-to-back kills. Sophomore Darcy Moore had 10 assists in that final set and finished with 33 assists and eight digs in the match.

The Spartans had chances to win the opening set of their season, fighting back from an early deficit to eventually tie the score at 10-10 thanks to a block from freshman Dominique Parker. The Spartans fell behind by five points mid-way through the first, but Jankauskaite sparked an NSU rally with a pair of kills. Sam Houston State called timeout after NSU went up by one, 20-19, and then the Bearkats won six of the last eight points of the set to go up early.

Johnson then added three early kills to help the Spartans go up 7-3 to start the second. Senior Coralie Jarema added two service aces during a big NSU run that pushed the score to 17-7. NSU called both of its timeouts, though, during a 7-0 Bearkat run that made it 22-19. Moore helped stem that momentum by the Bearkats with a block and service ace to close out the set for NSU.

In the third set, Sam Houston State forced a Spartan timeout by going up by a 9-7 score. NSU showed its dominance by turning that two-point deficit into an 18-13 advantage, with freshman Tori Tulensru capping it off with one of her six kills in the match. The Bearkats got to within two late in the set before NSU finished them off.

Jarema had six service aces, and Parker added six blocks. NSU hit .191 compared to .099 for the Bearkats. The Spartans also had a 14-3 advantage in service aces.

NSU will face Loyola (Md.) at 10 a.m. on Saturday and host Appalachian State at 7 p.m.