MIAMI SHORES, Fla. —  The 2025 season starts off with a bang, as the Barry Women's Volleyball team sweeps their opening day double header on Friday from the Health and Sports Center. The Buccaneers now improve to 28-9 overall in season openers and ride a 12-year opening day win streak. Both matches today ended in a sweep, match one against Malone and match two against D'Youville. The offense was hot hitting .400 in the first match and .493 in the second.

INSIDE THE MATCHUPS:
Final: #20 Barry 3, Malone 0
Records: Barry (1-0), Malone (0-1)
All-Time Series: Barry leads Malone 1-0

Final: #20 Barry 3, D'Youville 0
Records: Barry (2-0), D'Youville (0-1)
All-Time Series: Barry leads D'Youville 1-0

HOW IT HAPPENED (MALONE):

• Set One - The Bucs started out hot with four straight point to open the match. Newcomer, Sofya Sinkova got the Bucs first kill of the season and went back-to-back. Barry held a steady lead throughout the set and hit .333 wtih 12 kills and jut three attack errors to take the first set. | Barry 25, Malone 14
• Set Two - Ivana Žujovic started set two giving the Bucs the lead. Malone countered with four straight points for their first lead of the match. Barry quickly rebuttal with a 4-0 run of their own as Varvara Osychenko, McKayla Theleus, and Sinkova collected kills.The Bucs didn't allow for the Pioneers to put together any rallies of more than two points, which led to a big gap en route to second set victory. The set ended on a service ace from Theleus. Barry had a match-high 15 kills in the set. | Barry 25, Malone 16
• Set Three - The final set was all Barry from start to finish, swinging .688 in the set with 11 kills on 16 attempts and no errors. The Bucs also capitalized on the Pioneers -.148 hit percentage with seven errors. | Barry 25, Malone 8

NOTEWORTHY (MALONE):

• Veronika Eremeeva picked up where she left off leading the team in kills with 10. She also had three service aces.
• Sinkova had seven kills in her Buccaneer debut.
• Gaia Riedmüller continues to hold down the back line picking up 10 digs 
• Thalia Iglesias got the start and led the setters with 20 assists.
• Barry only trailed once throughout the match.
• Statistically, the Bucs led in all categories: kills (38-17), aces (11-1), blocks (5-2), assists (37-17), and digs (43-23)
• Every Buccaneer touched the floor this match.
• The Pioneers hit -.024 for the match, while the Bucs swung .400 with single digit errors.

HOW IT HAPPENED (D'YOUVILLE):

• Set One - In front of a packed Health and Sports Center Gym, the Bucs got the crowd going as Veronika Eremeeva laid down a kill for the first point of the match. D'Youville had a balanced fight up front as the teams traded lead back and forth. Points six through 10 were one offs traded back and firth between the teams. Barry finally gained space with a three point lead as Valeriya Kozlova and Eremeeva put down the hammer for back-to-back kills to make it 16-13. The biggest run came at the end with the Saints making three costly errors. Eremeeva closed the door with the final two kills. The Bucs hit .583 in the set with 16 kills and two errors. | Barry 25, D'Youville 18
• Set Two - Zujovic got set two started with a service ace. The Saints once again took over the lead with the next two points. Barry found a grove and went for four in a row as Frankie Good hit the exclamation point on the run. The Bucs ended the set on a 4-0run with three kills and a service ace from Petra Brkicic. D'Youville struggled offensively with just four kills and swinging .111. | Barry 25, D'Youville 16
• Set Three - The Saints scored first in the final set, but Barry quickly put three up on the board in return. After a stalemate at five-all, the Bucs took a 5-1 run as remeeva recorded three service aces in the process to make it 10-6. D'Youville had a late run but was too little too late as the brick wall of Zujovic and Osychenko denied the attack twice in a row and Eremeeva put the match away. | Barry 25, D'Youville 18

NOTEWORTHY (D'YOUVILLE):

• Veronika Eremeeva had another double-digit kill effort with 11.
• Kozlova was behind with eight kills for her career-high.
• Gaia Riedmuller led in digs with five.
• Brkicic and Iglesias were nearly even on assists with 18 and 16, respectively.
• Osychenko had four aces in the match and moves into the top-20 all-time with 85 in her career. She surpasses former teammate Akopova who recorded 84.
• Statistically, the Bucs led in all categories: kills (40-25), aces (11-2), blocks (3-2), assists (38-22), and digs (25-18)
• The team hitting percentage of .493 is 5th best all time in a three set match.