The No. 11 ranked Emory University volleyball team opened its national invitational with two wins on Friday, defeating Hendrix College in four sets and Birmingham-Southern College in a three-set sweep at the Woodruff PE Center in Atlanta, GA.

Prior to the start of the second match, the Eagles recognized their six-member senior class of Lauren Bandera, Charlese Blair, Ashley Brennan, Tara Martin, Roisin O'Dowd and Claire Yohann with a special on-court ceremony.

The two wins on Friday also marked a monumental occasion for Head Coach Jenny McDowell as she became just the seventh coach in Division III volleyball history to reach the 800 career wins mark. Across her 25 seasons, she owns an all-time win-loss ledger of 800-172.

Following the two victories, the Eagles have now won eight consecutive matches to push their overall record to 21-3. Emory closes out the regular season Saturday afternoon with a rematch against No. 14 ranked Berry College (20-2) at 1:30 PM in Atlanta, GA.

In the first match of the afternoon, the Eagles rebounded after dropping the first set to defeat the Warriors 18-25, 25-16, 25-13, 25-22. As a team, Emory attacked at a .276 percentage (54-20—123) with Tara Martin (13) and freshmen Madison Cail (12) and Alana Dawson (11) pacing the team with double-digit kill totals. Junior Cassie Srb doled out 45 assists, three more than the entire Hendrix team, while Bandera collected tallied a match-high 18 digs.

In the night cap, it was all Emory from the get-go as the Eagles handled BSC 25-12, 25-16, 25-15 in just over an hour. Martin led all players with 10 terminations and Emory as a whole attacked at a .344 clip (40-8—93). Blair collected eight kills in the win with Dawson chipping in with six.

The Emory National Invitational will conclude tomorrow with matches at 10:30 AM and 1:30 PM.