The North Carolina A&T volleyball team lost three straight games to open 2010-1011 season.

Friday and Saturday the Aggies saw action in the High Point Invitational at the Millis Center.

For the nine freshmen on the A&T volleyball team, this was their first experience in a Division I tournament.

“This was the first time 9 out of our 11 players ever played in a collegiate level Division I tournament,” said Head Coach Toni Conway. “They started off rocky, the first day was shaky; the second day was a little better.”

On Friday afternoon the Lady Aggies faced Appalachian State, this marked the season opener for both teams.

The Appalachian State Mountaineers dominated the Aggies defeating them 3-0 (25-9, 25-10, 25-13). The Mountaineers gained an impressive 10-2 advantage in the first set and continued to dominate throughout the match.

After a commanding two sets for the Mountaineers, two errors allowed the Aggies to tie 8-8 in the third set. That was the closet the Aggies would get to a victory. The Mountaineers went on a 14-1 run to take a 21-9 advantage over the Aggies. A&T would score only four more points before falling short to the Mountaineers.

In the loss, freshmen Tatiana Cooper and Jeana Daniels each recorded four kills for the Aggies. Senior Caroline Sedon led the Mountaineers with 10 kills and six block assists.

The tournament would not get much better for the Aggies. After a tough loss on Friday, the Lady Aggies faced both High Point and UNC Wilmington Saturday afternoon.

In the Aggies first match on Saturday, they fell short once again losing 3-0 (25-12, 25-9, 25-12) to High Point.

Cooper continued to play with high energy, recording five kills and eight digs in the Aggies second straight loss of the season.

In their third match of the tournament, the Lady Aggies faced UNC Wilmington. Although UNC Wilmington defeated A&T 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-16), the Aggies would not go down without a fight.

Daniels recorded her first career double with 11 digs and 11 kills. She also recorded two kills.

Coach Conway was pleased with Daniel’s numbers and very enthusiastic about her play for the season.

“She was able to get double figures in attacks as well as digging,” said Conway. “That’s a great start to what we are trying to accomplish this year.”

The only senior for the Lady Aggies, Amber Inman, added 19 assists and seven digs.

After falling to the UNCW Seahawks in the first set, the Lady Aggies sparked a 4-1 run to take a 13-10 advantage.

The Seahawks and the Aggies battled for the lead, and with the game tied 21-21 the Seahawks took the advantage scoring four straight points to win the set. The battle in the second set was the closest A&T would get to defeating the Seahawks.

In the third set UNCW took an early 15-5 lead and went on to defeat the Aggies, giving A&T their third straight loss.

After going 0-3 in the High Point Invitational, the Aggies are looking to turn their season around and pull out a win this Friday against Savannah at 6 p.m. in Corbett Sports Center.

Coach Conway has the faith that her team can do just that.

“It’s time to win,” Conway said. “We have a home match and we’re going to bring a win home this Friday.”

• Lauren Morgan