Recent graduate Kelli Becerra sets senior Courtney Manning versus Carolina. (Kathleen Strauss/The Daily Campus)

SMU volleyball opened its season at the Georgia Tech invite this weekend, finishing 1-2.

The Mustangs faced Charleston Southern Friday with two freshmen and two sophomores in the starting lineup of a team that has only three returning starters. The first set ended with an SMU run with eight of the nine last points, resulting in a 25-17 win.

The team carried the momentum into the second set with an eight-point run and held the Buccaneers to only 15 points to take the second set.

With freshman Cailin Bula’s team-high 12 kills out of 15 attacks, the Mustangs took the third set 25-15.

Fellow freshman Avery Acker had 35 assists in the match and senior libero and team captain Susan Lewis had a team-high nine digs.

Saturday SMU faced Cal State in a match that included the Mustang’s longest first set since the rule change from 30 to 25-point set in 2007. The battle of the first set ended in a 29-31 loss for SMU. Cal State continued their dominance of the match, taking the second set 21-25 and the third 17-25.

Sophomore Carla Armstrong put up a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs. Bula added nine kills and senior Courtney Manning had eight kills and three blocks.

In its last game at the invite, SMU faced host Georgia Tech in a five-set rally. The team took the first set 25-17 after an 18-12 lead and big kills by sophomore Caroline Young and Manning.

The Yellow Jackets took the second and third sets 25-17 and 25-20. SMU came back in the fourth set with a 26-24 thanks to ending kills by Bula and junior transfer Maddie Lozano.
In the fifth and final frame, the Mustangs lost 15-12. However Manning and Bula earned All-Tournament honors for their success over the weekend.

The team will be back near home for its next matches in the TCU Tournament Aug. 31 and Nov. 1 against TCU, Army and Texas A&M Corpus Christi.