PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Cardinals put some of their own sunshine in the Sunshine State in the volleyball season-opening day Friday. After dropping 2016's opening set, No. 2 Wheeling Jesuit rattled off six-straight set wins in the defeat of Carson Newman (Tenn.), 3-1, and Findlay, 3-0.
 
WJU (2-0) used a .317 opening-day hitting percentage to power its way past two teams receiving national rank consideration. The Cardinals bounced back from a 16-25 opening set for the next three sets (25-17, 25-11, 25-12). WJU outlasted Findlay by identical 26-24 scores in the first two sets and put away the sweep in the third set, 25-13. The victory gave WJU a victory over the last team to give it a loss back on Nov. 11, 2015 of last season, 14 matches ago.
 
"I thought our middles played well today. I liked our ability to work through our difficult moments and we definitely had them in both matches," said Cardinals head coach Christy Benner. "It's good to have two wins at the start of the season against two good teams."
 
The second day of the West Florida Hampton Inn-vitational will be an even bigger test. The Cardinals tangle with No. 9 Central Missouri at 12:30 p.m. before they face No. 23 and host West Florida on ESPN3 at 7 p.m.
 
All-American Haley Kindall picked up where she left off last December. The senior pounded 15 kills in each match with seven errors in 48 attacks for a .479 hit percentage. She also had five total blocks.
 
All-American setter Andrea Thobe dished out 85 assists, 17 digs and a pair of service aces.
 
Freshman Breanna Kramer contributed 24 kills, double figures in each match, and 13 digs.
 
Lauran Graves downed 15 kills with only one error in 28 attacks for an impressive .500 hit percentage. Emma Schleucher chipped in seven kills in each match, Kayce Krucki 24 total digs and Katie Campbell added seven kills.
 
In the opener, Marnie Streeter hit nine kills for Carson Newman. Findlay's Nickyla Garverick led her squad with 13 kills against WJU.