ATHENS, Ohio - The host Bobcats rolled out a 3-0 sweep (30-10, 30-16, 30-20) of Tennessee-Martin to wrap up the first of two days at the 2005 AmeriHost Inn & Suites Invitational.

Ohio was very efficient on both the offensive and defensive sides of the net. The Bobcats put away 47 kills and had a .364 hitting percentage for the match. The Ohio defense was just as strong holding the Skyhawks to a .010 hitting percentage with only 22 kills.

Nine Bobcats notched a tally in the kill column with Melissa Griffin (Whitehall, Mich.) pacing the Ohio attack with 13 kills. Julia Winkfield (Newark, Ohio) added seven while Stephanie Blackburn (Cincinnati, Ohio), Amanda Andersen (Lino Lakes, Minn.) and Jenna Gaughran (Centerville, Ohio) each added six.

Savanah Parra (Temecula, Calif.) spent the first two games at setter dishing out 28 assists and serving up three aces. Jill DeArmond (Ft. Wayne, Ind.) made her Bobcat debut in the third game and handed out 11 assists.

The Blackburn sisters patrolled the back row with Stephanie contributing 15 digs and Michaele (Cincinnati, Ohio) adding 12.

"I thought we got to get a lot of different looks in there," Head Coach Geoff Carlston said. "It was nice to get a lot of people in there to hopefully get rid of some of the butterflies for tomorrow."

The Bobcats stormed out to the early lead in the opening game going up 6-0. After the Skyhawks closed to 11-3, Ohio reeled off seven straight points to go up 18-3. Tennessee-Martin would get no closer with the Bobcats closing out the first game 30-10.

It was more of the same in the second game with Ohio once again jumping out to an 11-3 lead. The Bobcats would push the lead to 20-9 before the Skyhawks ran off three consecutive points to close to within 20-12. Ohio scored 10 of the game's last 14 points to win the second game 30-16.

The third and final game was a little more competitive with the Bobcats only holding two leads of 10 points. Ohio went up 16-6 but Tennessee-Martin stayed around closing to within six at 26-20. The Bobcats answered scoring the game's final four points to win the deciding game 30-20.

"One of the things we're trying to work on is to make sure we don't let it up once we get a lead, coasting so to speak," Carlston said. "That was really the only thing I was frustrated about tonight. It's one of those things we're working to get better at."

Ohio will turn its attention to the University of Idaho and West Virginia University tomorrow. The Bobcats play Idaho at 1 p.m. in tomorrow's opening match and conclude the tournament with West Virginia at 7 p.m. Idaho went 2-0 the first day while West Virginia went 0-1.

"We play two very good teams tomorrow," Carlston said. "Idaho's a little bit more physical of a team. We definitely need to block better against them.

"West Virginia is a pretty good ball control team so we need to be prepared to stay in there for long points with them. It'll come down to our passing and our servicing and hopefully we can block better."

In other action today, Idaho swept Tennessee-Martin 3-0 (30-24, 30-20, 30-20) behind Kati Tikker's 11 kills. Idaho then defeated West Virginia 3-1 (25-30, 30-22, 30-27, 30-20) behind 23 more kills from Tikker.