AIKEN, S.C --  The Nova Southeastern University volleyball team (4-1) made their first trip back to the USC Aiken Volleyball Invitational since 2012 on Friday and ended the first day splitting a pair of matches. The Sharks defeated Belmont Abbey in a five-set match 3-2, but later fell to tournament host USC Aiken 3-0 on Friday afternoon at the Convocation Center.

Despite dropping the second match of the tournament, the first match win gave NSU a 4-0 start to the 2015 season. It's the first time in school history the Sharks have begun a season with four straight wins. 

"Today was tough because we started with an emotionally charged come-from-behind five-set win and made school history in doing so," head coach Jenn King said. "Then we had to turn around and immediately play a very talented USC Aiken team with only a 30-minute break. We just ran out of gas. That being said, we had some great performances today that we can build on. I'm looking forward to two more competitive matches tomorrow so we can keep improving and working toward our goals!"

In the first match of the tournament, NSU exploded out of the gates winning the first set 25-13 over the Crusaders. However, the second set proved more challenging as Belmont Abbey took a three-point win 25-22. The third and fourth sets mirrored the first and second with NSU winning set three 25-16 and Belmont Abbey taking the fourth 25-23 to send it into the decisive set five.

Down 14-12, the Sharks went on a 4-0 run to win 16-14 and closed out the match. The run was ignited by a Sydney Cook (Sr., Miami, Fla.) kill and ended on a solo block by Caitlin Donahue (Sr., Miami, Fla.).

To close out the first day of the tournament, NSU had to immediately turn around and face an NCAA regional contender and tournament host USC Aiken. With only 30 minutes to recoup from the earlier five-set marathon, the Sharks simply ran out of gas falling to the Pacers 25-8, 25-17, 25-18 in their first loss of the season.

Dana Holger (Sr., Lino Lakes, Fla.) paced the Sharks with 20 kills, 19 of which came in their first match to start the tournament. Katie Pyles (Jr., Denver, Colo.) added 15 kills and 53 assists over the two matches and Kaelyn Brock (So., La Quinta, Calif.) contributed 23 digs.

The Sharks will return to action on Saturday for another pair of matches starting with Lees McRae at 10 a.m. and at 2 p.m. facing King College. Multimedia coverage of the tournament will be provided on the USC-Aiken official tournament website at www.PacerSports.com. Video streaming and live stat coverage will be limited to just the Pacers' main court throughout the tournament, but will be available for NSU's matches against the host Pacers and King.