BOCA RATON, Fla. -- How was that for starters? Barry University's volleyball team won its season opener Friday at Lynn University's Boca Raton Invitational, beating West Alabama, 24-26, 25-23, 25-22, 25-16.

The Buccaneers will play two matches Saturday against Barton and Valdosta State to finish the opening weekend.

"It was a great start to the weekend," Barry fifth-year coach Steve Hendricks said. "To get this win is fantastic."

The Buccaneers tied the match at 1-1 in the second set after Katie Dooley put down a ball to square things up at 21-21 before a series of back-and-forth errors eventually pulled Barry even with the Tigers. Barry used an 8-0 run in the middle of the third set, touched off by Ivana Didanovic's kill to take a 16-12 lead. The Bucs rode that momentum the rest of the way, widening the gap to 20-16 on Kaitlin Drake's kill. Dooley's slam bumped the Bucs ahead 23-19, forcing a Tigers timeout. After West Alabama's Yanesha Johnson put down a ball to pull the Tigers within two, Barry's Eva Raat sealed the third set with a kill to give the Buccaneers a 2-1 lead.

"The veterans really came through," Hendricks said. "We have to pass better to get them the ball. But the way we fought through it was great. We moved to a gameplan of staying away from their libero, and executed the game plan. West Alabama's a very good team."

Barry raced to a 12-7 lead in the final set when Didanovic put away one of Jenny Trinidad's 24 assists. Drake's kill extended the lead to 19-9, and the Bucs coasted the rest of the way.

Didanovic finished with 12 kills and four blocks, while hitting .320. Drake had 12 kills, six block assists and eight digs, and Raat 10 kills. Dooley had six kills with no errors in 12 attempts, and combined for five blocks.

"It was apparent that my team worked out over the summer," Hendricks said. "Our conditioning was great. It was apparent in sets three and four."

Briana Sandifer had 14 kills, and Johnson 12 for the Tigers, which matched the Bucs with nine blocks. Barry libero Brittany Jaco had 24 digs and four assists, and Jasmine Serna 16 assists and six digs. Freshman Kat Espinosa had 15 digs and three aces, and also put away five kills.

"Kat's kind of a no-fear freshman," Hendricks said. "For a freshman to come in and play like that was phenomenal. Brittany played really well.

"It was a great start."

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