TUSKEGEE, Ala. | The Tuskegee University volleyball team faced two of the toughest competitors in the opening day of the Spikefest Tournament at Chappie James Arena, dropping both matches by identical 3-0 scores to North Greenville and Limestone.
 
Tuskegee (0-1) and North Greenville traded points in the opening set until a 4-0 pushed North Greenville to the first set victory, before the Lady Golden Tigers could not overcome their slow start as they fell behind by as many as 11 in the second set. In the final set, the two teams traded points until North Greenville was able to pull away and secure the straight-set victory.
 
In her first collegiate match, freshman Jessica Johnson (Stockbridge, Ga.) paced Tuskegee with eight kills on 23 total attempts. Fellow freshman Shakayia Wilson (Goose Creek, S.C.) finished with six kills on 18 total attacks, while hitting .056 for the match. Taliyana Bryant (North Little Rock, Ark.), another freshman, finished with five kills and hit .214 for the match.
 
Sophomore Zahria Radford (Houston, Texas), a preseason second all-conference performer, finished the morning match with 15 digs, while sophomore Janae Graham (Long Beach, Calif.) led Tuskegee with 18 assists.
 
Samantha Hebb posted match-high 12 kills, while Ashlyn Wilkinson finished with 15 digs. Madison Pogue finished with match-high 27 assists for North Greenville, who finished the day hitting .313 as a team.
 
Tuskegee (0-2) had 10 hours between matches after dropping their opening match, but came up short against Limestone (2-0) in the night's finale 3-0 (19-25,11-25,22-25).

In the final contest of the day, Wilson led the Lady Golden Tigers with eight kills on 25 total attempts. She also recorded six digs, one assist, one service ace and hit .056 in the final match of the night. Johnson and Donovan Wingfield (Cincinnati, Ohio) each added four kills in the loss. Radford added 15 digs, and Graham 18 assists in the loss.

Meanwhile Jenna Mummert led Limestone with a match-high 10 kills.

Tuskegee will play a pair of matches on Saturday against St. Andrews (2 pm) and Talladega (8 pm).
 
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