KEARNEY, Neb. -- The Augustana volleyball program opened up its 2019 season with a pair of wins at the Loper Pre-season Invite on Friday. The Vikings began their day with a 3-1 victory over Oklahoma Baptist before sweeping Findlay 3-0 to close out the first day. 

Oklahoma Baptist
The Vikings (2-0) captured the 25-22, 25-16, 21-25, 25-21 victory to secure their first win of the season. 

Augustana used 60 kills to pull away from the Bison in the four sets. The Vikings shook the first-match jitters away after the first set to open up the second set strong and created momentum for the rest of the match. 

Sophomore Grace Haberland had a double-double, 14 kills and 10 digs, tying her career-high for kills, while sophomore Avery Thorson finished with a double-double of 49 assists, one shy of tying her career-high, and 17 digs. 

After a back-and-forth first set, Augie came out strong taking a 9-2 lead that forced an OBU timeout early on. The Vikings kept the foot on the pedal as they stretched their lead to 22-12 after Abby Benson slammed home one of her five kills. Haberland closed out the set with a kill of her own to give Augustana the 25-16 set win. 

In the third set, the Vikings would go on a 6-0 scoring streak late in the set before the Bison took back the momentum with a 10-3 run to close out set three. 

Augustana would close out the fourth set strong thanks to kills from freshmen Lexie Langley and Kia Kriener. 

Sophomore Izzy Sommers finished with a career-high 13 kills to go along with 3 blocks on the day while freshmen Maddy Guetter and Erika Bute had strong debuts for the Vikings. Guetter finished with 10 kills and five digs while Bute led the team with 24 digs and had three aces. 

Findlay
The Vikings used their momentum from the morning victory to earn the sweep against Findlay, 25-11, 25-20, 25-23. 

Augustana came out hot going on an 8-2 run before the Oilers came within three at 9-6. The Vikings used a 7-1 run late to close out the first set. 

During the second set, the Vikings were in for more of a battle but used a few Oiler mistakes along with kills from Thorson, Haberland and Sommers to keep the shutout alive. 

In the third set, Findlay looked like it would live to fight another set going up 23-18 after a kill from Emily Annesser, but Guetter would kickstart and finish a 7-0 run to close out the third and final set to secure the sweep. 

Thorson led the stat column in assists and tacked on six kills while Guetter led the team with 13 kills on an impressive .500 hitting percentage. Junior Payton Rosendahl recorded seven kills while Haberland finished with 10 kills. 

Quotable: 
"I am proud of the way the team played today," head coach Jennifer Jacobs said. "We got smarter as the day went on and showed some maturity in finishing out that last match in three sets. Looking forward to being back at it tomorrow!"

Up Next:
The Vikings finish up the Loper Pre-Season Invite tomorrow when they take on Adams State at 2 p.m. and the host Nebraska-Kearney at 6 p.m. 

For more information on Augustana Volleyball, stay tuned to GoAugie.com and follow @AugieVolleyball on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.