ASHLAND, Ore. -The Embry-Riddle volleyball team opened the 2010 slate with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-14, 25-12) defeat of Simpson (Calif.) on the first day of play at the Paul Elliott Invitational hosted by Southern Oregon on Friday. The Eagles are now 1-0, while the Storm drops to 0-2.

Junior Abby Hall (21-2-39) paced the Eagles with 21 kills, 10 digs and a .487 hitting percentage. Sophomore Taylor Martin finished with nine kills and 12 digs, while newcomer Nina Kontrec tallied 18 digs.

The Eagles spread the offense around in the opening set as six different players recorded kills. Behind Martin's serve, the Eagles went on a 5-0 run to open the set, but the Storm battled back and kept the margin at four points until the 19-15 mark when a four-point Eagle run extended the advantage to 23-16. Simpson managed a brief rally of its own, but the Eagles were able to hold on and close out the first set 25-20.

Simpson managed to tie the Eagles 1-1 to open the second set, but that's as close as the Storm would get as the rotation that had sophomore setter Adrianna Vazquez serving yielded nine unanswered points. Once again, Simpson was able to put together a run that made it a four-point game at 15-11,but two kills each from Hall and Martin down the stretch helped the Eagles halt the run and take the set 25-14.

Embry-Riddle carried the momentum of the second set into third. Gloria Kemp saw her first action in the third frame and registered a kill on her first swing to put the Eagles up 1-0. Miscues proved to be the undoing of Simpson in the final stanza as the Eagles won 11 points on six attack errors, three reception errors and two errors off the serve. With the score at 22-12 Jordan Holcomb and Morgan Shattuck combined for back-to-back blocks and Hall registered her 21st kill to seal the win.

The Eagles close out Friday's action at 7:30 p.m. (PDT) against host and 13th-ranked Southern Oregon.