CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. ? Austin Peay State University's volleyball team completed its clean sweep of opening day action at the 2008 Lady Govs Volleyball Classic, downing Northwestern State, 3-0 (25-13, 25-23, 25-21), Friday night, at the Dunn Center. The Lady Govs swept SIU Edwardsville in their opening match of the tournament and are now tied with Tennessee-Martin with perfect 2-0 slates entering Saturday's action.

The Lady Govs controlled the opening set, jumping out to a 13-4 lead and never looking back. Northwestern State's resolve stiffened in the second set as they bounced back from an 8-4 deficit to close within one point, 16-15, midway through the set and did not let the Lady Govs out of their sight before falling 25-23. In the third set, the Demons rattled off eight consecutive points to take an 11-8 lead and led 18-16 late in the set. However, the Lady Govs rallied for the next five points and scored nine of the last 12 to seal the match.

“One of the things we talked about at the end of the match was when a team is going to give you everything they've got you have to respond,” said Lady Govs head coach Jenny Hazelwood. “We did that tonight. We got down, took a step back and decided we wanted to win the match.”

Austin Peay had another impressive offensive performance, posting 41 kills and a .261 attack percentage in the contest. It was their second-straight 40-kill performance in a three-set match. Freshman Kayla Grantham led the effort with 11 kills while sophomore Jessica Mollman added her second double-digit kill performance, finishing with 10 kills. Junior Kirstin Distler had a clean night on attack, finishing with eight kills and no errors on 12 attempts.

“I'm very pleased (with our offense),” Hazelwood said. “We're making progress like we want to and need to. I feel our offense can be great but if our defense doesn't pick it up or if our passing doesn't get better then it won't matter how our offense performs.”

Northwestern State's offense had its troubles against the Lady Govs defense and finished with only 28 kills and a meager .074 attack percentage. Laranda Spann led the Demons offensive effort with 10 kills. However, NWSU was able to win the service battle, posting seven service aces against APSU's five.

The Lady Govs return to action with a 10 a.m., Saturday, contest against Texas A&M Corpus Christi in tournament's second day. They later close the tournament at 7 p.m. against Tennessee-Martin.

2008 Lady Govs Volleyball Classic ? Complete Schedule
Friday, August 29, 2008
10 a.m. ? Tennessee-Martin def. Northwestern State, 3-2
1 p.m. ? Austin Peay def. SIU Edwardsville, 3-0
4 p.m. ?Tennessee-Martin def. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 3-1
7 p.m. ? Austin Peay def. Northwestern State, 3-0

Saturday, August 30, 2008
10 a.m. ? Austin Peay vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
1 p.m. ? Tennessee-Martin vs. SIU Edwardsville
4 p.m. ? Northwestern State vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
7 p.m. ? Austin Peay vs. Tennessee-Martin