The Dominican University women's volleyball team opened the 2018 season on Friday, splitting a pair of matches at the Ground Round Sugar Loaf Classic hosted by St. Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota. The Stars fell in three sets to the host Cardinals (25-19, 25-16, 25-19) before exacting some revenge on Luther College, topping the Norse in four sets (20-25, 25-16, 25-23, 25-14).
 
"I was really proud of the effort we put into today," said Cameron Andrew, the Stars' head coach in his first season. "We didn't execute as well as we would have liked against St. Mary's, but we played some really gritty defense and were able to execute offensively a little bit more against Luther."
 
#Stephanie Cole# and #Gabija Sinickaite# led the Stars offensively in the loss to St. Mary's, collecting seven kills apiece.  Sinickaite, a freshman, hit a team-high .417 on 12 swings yet the Stars managed to hit at just a .082 clip in the losing effort.
 
After a rough first set that saw Dominican commit 14 attack errors against the Norse, the Stars turned things around, taking the next three sets while hitting .205 over the final three sets.  Sinickaite swung a heavy hand for Dominican again, collecting 11 kills on 30 attempts but this time it was #Gillian Jones# that paced the offense with 13 kills on 44 swings.
 
"We absolutely have a lot of work to do to get to where we need to be," claimed Andrew, "but today was a great first step. The effort was there from the beginning; now we just need to bring it again tomorrow and work on tightening it all up."
 
The Stars will return to action on Saturday, continuing play in the Sugar Loaf Classic with Northland College and Augustana College on the schedule. Dominican will take on Northland at 10:00 a.m. before closing out the tournament with Augustana at 12:00 p.m.