JACKSONVILLE— Kirsten Barrett broke a school record that has stood since 1992 with nine aces in a four-set match, and Reagan Barth had 21 kills as Georgia Southern volleyball (1-0) gutted through a win at North Florida (0-1) in match one of the North Florida Sunshine Tournament.

"It definitely was a grind, especially opening up with a true road match," head coach Chad Willis said. "That's a tough team that played well defensively, and we were high-error on our side. I'm proud of the poise of our team to stay the course and match the defensive intensity. Once we started playing through our defense a little more, we did some nice things."

North Florida jumped to an early lead and didn't look back in the opening set, holding the Eagles to a .070 (13-10-43) hitting mark. This set was highlighted by freshman Alex Myers picking up a trio of kills in her first collegiate match.

The second set was going the way of the first set before the Eagles kicked it into gear. Trailing 18-14 and as much as five early on, Myers recorded a kill and Barrett had consecutive aces to get within one.

It wasn't long before the Eagles went on a 3-0 run to take a 20-19 lead. Maggie Sale had a big kill and Barth followed, putting the Eagles up for the first time since the first two points of the set. A few errors from the Ospreys allowed the Eagles to pull ahead and take the second one 25-22.

GS ran away to begin the third set, leading 10-4 after an emphatic Sam Bowron solo block. Barth added five more kills to continue her dominance and Barrett extended her pressure from the service line with a few more aces as the Eagles won 25-17.

More errors plagued the Ospreys in the fourth set. Ailie Hair, playing in her first game in 631 days due to injury, forced the hand with a block assist and pushed the Eagles' lead to 11-3.

The Ospreys charged back to take a 16-15 lead, but a timely 4-0 run to go up 20-18 allowed the Eagles to put it into second gear. Myers had a block and a kill during that sequence, and Bowron capped off a 25-23 set win with her sixth kill as the Eagles started the season 1-0.

"We talked about being too high-error and not pressing UNF at all, and we knew we were going to get an emotional team in their home opener," Willis said. "We did a good job of staying the course and trusting our process."

The two preseason All-Sun Belt members were the standouts in tonight's match. Barrett recorded 41 assists, eight digs and a four-set program record nine aces - breaking the record of eight set by Pamela Grosch on 10/4/88 and equaled by Julie Ciezkowski on 9/16/92. It was the first time an Eagle had eight since Ashlyn Lovett did so on 9/3/22.

"We knew if we pressured them from the service line, it would get them out of system," Barrett said. "We just had to go back out there confidently and get after it."

Not to be outdone, Barth recorded her seventh career 20-kill game and highest number since her freshman season with 21, picking up her 20th double-double as well with 11 digs. Sale had nine kills and Myers had eight and hit .316 with a trio of block assists in her collegiate debut.

Maddie Cugino recorded a career-high 25 digs in her Eagles debut, joined by Mayte Camacho (career-best 17), Bowron (career-best 15) and Barth (11) on a night where the Eagles had 79 total.

GS will have a quick turnaround, taking on UIC Saturday at 2:00.