EL PASO, Texas - The Oral Roberts University volleyball team (1-0) defeated the New Jersey Institute of Technology (0-1), 3-0, in its season opener Friday night in the first match of the Sun Bowl Invitational hosted by the University of Texas-El Paso. ORU won 25-12, 28-26 and 25-14 to sweep the Highlanders.

Senior hitter Janete Ferreira (Sao Paulo, Brazil) led the Golden Eagles with 14 kills and hit .429, while senior hitter Jackie Oliveira (Minas Gerais, Brazil) recorded 12 kills and three block assists. Sophomore blocker Jocelyn Swier (Ripon, Calif.) tacked on six kills and five block assists and senior setter Thais Parada (Sao Paulo, Brazil) registered 33 assists and six kills.

The Golden Eagles ran out to a 12-5 lead in set one, as ORU took advantage of four attacking errors on NJIT and senior hitter Danijela Novakovic (Rijeka, Croatia) recorded a service ace early on in the set. The Highlanders cut the ORU lead to five at 13-8 but the Golden Eagles finished out the set on a 12-3 run with Ferriera tallying four kills and Oliveira tacked on three kills for the first-game victory.

ORU went up 4-1 in the second set as Oliveira and Ferriera came out strong with two kills and senior libero Carol Garbato (Sao Paulo, Brazil) recorded her first service ace of the season before NJIT came back to tie it up at 4-all. The teams matched each other point for point in the next 10 plays before the Golden Eagles found a rhythm again at 9-9 and recorded the next four points on Ferreira, Oliveira and Swier kills and an attacking error on NJIT.

The Golden Eagles led by as much as four in the second set at 16-12 before NJIT tied it up at 17, taking advantage of three attacking errors by the Golden Eagles. The teams traded points once again and ORU had the set point at 24-23 but NJIT's Kristy Haeckel came through with a kill to take the game into extra points. ORU's Novakovic added a big kill to tie it up at 26-all and helped the team out with another kill before Swier recorded the last kill of the match to give the Golden Eagles a 28-26 final.

ORU led off the third set with a 6-2 run on three Ferreira kills and two NJIT attacking errors. The Golden Eagles took off from that point on and never looked back to win the the third set, 25-14, and win the match.

Overall ORU recorded 47 kills compared to NJIT's 22 and the Golden Eagles hit .225 as a team and held the Highlanders to .000 hitting percentage.

The Golden Eagles continue action in the Sun Bowl Invitational Saturday morning, facing Butler at 11 a.m. (CT). ORU concludes the invite Saturday evening, battling host UTEP at 8 p.m. (CT).