Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Saginaw Valley State Box Score | Palm Beach Atlantic Box Score | Season Statistics

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The Lady Blues earned a pair of sweeps Saturday to finish their season-opening weekend 4-0 at the Palm Beach Atlantic Sunshine Classic. They beat Saginaw Valley State 25-14, 25-12, 25-22 to start the day and then topped the host team 25-20, 25-17, 30-28 in the finale.

The seventh-ranked Lady Blues will continue action on the road with four matches next weekend in the Southwest Baptist Bearcat Bash. Friday they'll open up the tournament against Christian Brothers at 9:30 a.m.

The Lady Blues hit .347 against Saginaw Valley State while keeping their opponent to a .079 attack. Hillary Hughes led with nine kills while Jessica Fey, Jessica Kopp and Marissa Cox each had seven. Cox hit .600 and had a hand on both of Washburn's blocks. Gracie Petersen started for the first time at setter and had 25 assists. Libero Courtney Churchman had 13 digs.

Washburn scored four straight kills to take an early lead in the match and a 5-0 run later gave the Lady Blues a 12-5 lead. They held a solid advantage throughout the first set and into the second. Three straight SVSU errors gave Washburn an 18-8 lead in the second set and a kill from Petersen later ended the set. Peteresen hit .625 in the match with five kills in eight tries with no errors.

The Lady Blues were two points from closing out the match with a 23-15 lead in the third set before the Cardinals scored seven straight to pull within a point. Two straight SVSU errors then clinched the win for Washburn.

Fey had 13 kills and hit .480 against the Sailfish to close out the tournament. Hughes joined her in double figures with 11 kills. Churchman had 15 digs and Kopp had 10.

Washburn hit .234 in the match while the Sailfish hit .177. After a 15-15 tie in the first set, the Lady Blues scored seven of the next eight before closing out the set on a kill from Kopp. The Lady Blues took a 7-1 lead early in the second set and held off PBA to go up 2-0 in sets.

The third set featured 17 ties and six lead changes. The Sailfish used an 8-1 run to go up 16-11 but Washburn scored four straight to get within one. A kill from Fey later tied it at 20-20 and there were eight more ties after that. The Sailfish got to set point at 28-27 before Washburn scored three straight to get the win. Fey had a kill and then a block and then a PBA error ended the match.

Hughes led Washburn during the week with 3.92 kills a set and Fey had 3.38 while hitting .376 during the four matches. Head coach Chris Herron improved to 44-0 in the 11 season-opening tournaments he's coached in at Washburn.