Beatrice, NE—The Marshalltown Community College women's volleyball team opened the 2013 season with a 3-0 victory over McCook Community College at the RKP Invite hosted by Southeast Community College on Saturday. In their next two matches, the Tigers went five sets but fell to both Southeast Community College and Northeast Community College.

MCC took the first match of the tournament handedly, defeating the Indians 25-23, 25-17, and 25-14. After dropping the first set against NCC 25-27, the Tigers rallied to take the next two, 25-19 and 25-22. MCC had a chance to win in the fourth set before falling 24-26. NCC closed out the match, taking the tiebreaker 15-7. The Tigers won the first set 25-15 against Southeast but dropped the next two, 22-25 and 21-25. MCC tied the match up at two games apiece with a fourth set 25-21 victory. In a hard fought tiebreaker, SCC took the match 15-11.

Head coach Chris Brees saw the season-opener as a positive for the program. "I thought we were very competitive throughout the entire day," Brees said. "We struggled to close at the end but that will come with maturity."

Against McCook, freshman Meghann Cole (Des Moines, IA/West Des Moines Valley) paced the Tigers with 11 kills and added three aces. Sophomore Ashley Salgado (Ottumwa, IA/Ottumwa) carried the Tigers defensively, collecting a team-high 42 digs in the match.

Cole shined once again in the second match, picking up 13 kills against the Hawks. The offense ran through Sam Hinrichs (Ankeny, IA/Ankeny) as the freshman recorded 31 assists while also picking up five blocks. Miranda Smith (Albion, IA/Marshalltown) picked up five blocks as well while adding 10 kills.

In the final match Cole recorded 13 kills for the second straight game to lead MCC. Sophomore Katelyn Yauslin (Cedar Rapids, IA/Alburnett) also hit double-digits in the kill column, coming up with 10. Salgado provided a solid defensive effort once again, registering 60 digs.

Salgado totaled 147 digs on the day to lead the Tigers. Brees praised the entire defensive effort for the Tigers. "We were very sound on the defensive end today. Our defense kept us in the games."

Cole totaled a team-high 37 kills while Yauslin recorded 30. As the team's primary setter, Hinrichs assisted on 82 attempts on the day.

Next up for the Tigers will be the team's first Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) matchup as MCC travels to Clinton Community College for a 7:30 pm contest on August 26.