HOUGHTON, N.Y. - The Embry-Riddle University women's volleyball team opened the 2006 campaign with a pair of losses at the Houghton College tournament with a 3-0 defeat against NAIA preseason No. 24 Cornerstone (Mich.) 3-0 (18-30, 20-30, 14-30) and a 3-2 decision to host Houghton (30-19, 19-30, 30-27, 22-30, 13-15).

The Eagles are playing without senior Janelle Marinos who injured her knee before preseason and is likely to miss the entire 2006 season. Marinos led the team in kills and hitting percentage last year en route to NAIA honorable mention All-American and FSC Player of the Year honors.

Freshman middle hitter Jenn Meglic and sophomore Jenni Nelsen led the Eagles in their tough 3-2 loss to Houghton with .259 (10K-21A) and .250 hitting percentages (11K-35A), respectively. Defensively Nelsen paced ERAU with 19 digs, junior transfer Rachel Ridder added 15 from the libero position, freshman Savannah Trakes finished with 14 and sophomore setter Marisssa Gonzales closed out the match with 15 digs, while adding 39 assists.

"The Houghton match was a well-fought match and we narrowly lost by two points in the final game," Gallop said. "We had some very untimely missed serves and unforced errors that killed us in both matches."

"We had to adjust to the altitude difference which attributed to some of the services errors, but we also had some nerves with our first matches and just adjusting to our systems in match play is much different than preseason competition."

The Eagles finish the tournament on Saturday at 11 a.m. against Taylor (Ind.) and Roberts Wesleyan (N.Y.) at 1 p.m.

"We got a chance to see Taylor and Roberts and they are good teams, so we have to come ready to play both physically and mentally," Gallop added.