RELATED CLICKS:

• MATCH 1: Northern Colorado 3, SMU 2
  
• MATCH 2: Northern Colorado 3, North Texas 0
  

DENTON, Texas -- Northern Colorado volleyball started slow but finished hot in a season-opening 3-2 win (23-25, 21-25, 25-23, 25-16, 17-15) against SMU on Friday morning during the first day of the 2009 North Texas Mean Green Volleyball Classic.

The Bears then continued their momentum Friday night with a slightly easier 3-0 victory (25-17, 25-20, 25-20) over the host Mean Green to start 2-0 for the second straight season.

Northern Colorado will continue its quest for a first Mean Green Classic title Saturday, when it faces Texas-San Antonio at 9 a.m. and New Mexico State, a preseason top-30 team, at 1 a.m. Both times are mountain.

The Bears scorched the ball in both matches Friday, hitting .317 in their thriller with the Mustangs only to better that mark in the nightcap, slamming down at a .337 clip against North Texas.

"Today was an exciting day," Northern Colorado coach Lyndsey Benson said. "SMU was a good test to start off with, and that will definitely be a good win on our record at the end of the year when we look back. They played us very tough, and I'm really pleased with the way we responded.

"We started off a little slow in the morning match because our serve-receive wasn’t quite in the rhythm we want. But as soon as we figured that out and defended (the Mustangs') middles a little better, then we got in a good flow and got some really good individual performances."

Kenzie Shreeve lived up to her newly publicized moniker "The Hammer" by leading the Bears against SMU with 20 kills, while Taylor Smith (14), Allison Raguse (13), and Ashley Lichtenberg (10) were right behind with double-digit kill efforts.

Breanna VanDerMost (16 digs), Amanda Arterburn (13) and Raguse (10) keyed a great defensive effort.

Smith's 14 kills came with just two errors (.571) as she made her long-awaited return to her hometown of Denton and her old high-school volleyball facility, later purchased by North Texas.

"Kenzie Shreeve and Taylor Smith, some of our seniors, really played like seniors against SMU," Benson said. "Taylor was really excited about coming back into this venue and she and Kenzie and the rest of our seniors did a great job leading our team and never letting us get rattled when we were down 0-2 heading into intermission.

"It just goes to show that we really do have a veteran team this year. We were able to battle right back and were able to handle some adversity right out of the gate to start the season."

Against North Texas, Lichtenberg led the charge with a perfect match of 11 kills and no errors, while Smith matched her with 11 slams.

And as good as the veterans looked on the day, the future proved just as exciting, with true freshman Marissa Hughes debuting her Blue & Gold career with 79 assists in the two matches. Sixty of those came against SMU, with three kills, two service aces and six digs thrown in as well.

Then, with Benson and the Bears getting the luxury of trying some varied rotations against North Texas in the nightcap, sophomore Natalie Laband dished out 20 assists and had two kills.

"We were able to play all 14 players (against North Texas) who made the trip with us," Benson said, "and it was really nice to be able to work through some different lineups and really prove that we do have some depth this year. Everyone who went in tonight made a great positive impact."