TOLEDO, Ohio— The University of Toledo women's volleyball team opened its regular season on Friday night, falling to North Dakota State in three sets.

NDSU won the first two sets by the same score, 25-16, before pulling away to win the third set, 25-14.

Junior Chloee Kleespies tallied a team-high eight kills and added eight digs, while junior Rhyen Neal led the way with a match-high 11 digs. Three freshmen made their collegiate debuts on Friday- Ryann Jaqua, Abby Ray, and Olivia Vance.

The Blue and Gold Tournament will continue with four matches on Saturday. Toledo will battle Western Kentucky at Noon before playing Loyola at 7:00 p.m. WKU and North Dakota State will start the day's action at 10:00 a.m., and the Bison and Ramblers will play at 4:30 p.m.

Set 1
The Bison used a 7-0 run to jump out to a 9-2 lead over the Rockets. Toledo then put together a 5-0 charge that was punctuated by a service ace from Kleespies and made the score 9-7. That would be the closest the Rockets would get in the first set, as NDSU ended up winning 25-16 to take a 1-0 lead in the match. Kleespies and senior Zoe Birnbrich both registered three kills in the first set. Jaqua added seven digs, tied for the most by a player in a single set on Friday.

Set 2
The second set ended in the same score as the first, 25-16, and saw the Bison take a 2-0 lead in the match. NDSU controlled the set from the start, eventually finding its way to a 16-5 lead over Toledo. The Bison used a 14-3 run to get to that point, and used a .308 hitting percentage in the second frame to come out on top. Kleespies once again led the way statistically for the Rockets, tallying four kills and five digs in the second frame.

Set 3
North Dakota State came out firing in the third set, taking a quick 4-0 lead, and never looked back. The Bison used a match-high .433 hitting percentage in the third set to cruise to a 25-14 win and take Friday's match in straight sets. NDSU ended the night on a 9-3 run to take the set and the match. Junior Emma Swope added five kills for the Rockets in the final set of the night.