Jacksonville, Fla. – Neci Harris had a game-high 13 kills, and Maya Mrus added a double-double, on Friday morning to lead the Furman volleyball team to a 3-1 (16-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-12) victory over the Jacksonville Dolphins in the opening match of the Dolphin Classic from Historic Swisher Gym.

Furman improves to 4-2 on the season while Jacksonville drops to 2-5 overall.

Harris combined to hit over .500 for the third time this season, finishing at .522 to go with her 13 kills. Mrus recorded her first double-double of the season on 12 kills and 11 digs while hitting .333. Sarah Turner and Ella Abraham combined for 33 assists with Turner dishing out 19 and Abraham 14. Andrea Aceveda contributed 16 digs. Kelsey Watkins set a new career-high defensively with six assisted blocks.

Cami Kelsay led the Dolphins with 11 kills while Brianna Jackson added 10. Camryn Honn had 27 assists. Kariana Ayala and Gyrani Rogers finished with 14 and 10 digs, respectively,

Jacksonville jumped out to an early 8-4 lead in the first set before the Paladins scored four straight, capped by combination blocks from Watkins and Mikaela Schultz, to even the score at 8-8. Bella Tolone kept Furman within one midway, 14-13, with her kill. Jacksonville closed out the set on a 9-3 run and won 25-16 on Kyndaal Stansberry's kill.

The teams split the first 14 points of the second set when Harris' kill made the score 7-7. After the Dolphins went ahead 12-10, the Paladins scored four of the next five points to go in front 14-13 following Mrus' kill. With the score tied at 14-14, Furman would go on a 7-3 run to take its largest lead of the set at 21-17 after a Jacksonville attack error. The Dolphins got to within one point twice with the last coming at 24-23. Sydney Tanner gave the Paladins the 25-23 victory the following play with her kill.

Furman began the third set on a 9-4 run and built its lead out to 20-9 when Ava Augustson's kill completed a 16-5 run. Jacksonville would only get as close as 23-16 the remainder of the set after Keyauna Linwood connected on a kill. Back-to-back kills from Mrus and Tanner secured the 25-16 win for the Paladins.

Furman opened the fourth set in similar fashion by recording 13 of the first 19 points and taking a 15-6 lead midway on a Chandler Parker kill. A combination block by Harris and Tanner, and kill from Abraham, extended the Paladins' lead to 22-11, forcing the Dolphins into a timeout. Following the timeout, Furman tallied the next two points to take its largest lead of the set at 24-11 on Tanner's kill. Harris followed two plays later with a kill, giving the Paladins the 25-12 victory and capturing the match, 3-1.

Furman concluded the match holding a .238-.180 advantage in hitting over Jacksonville and finished with eight total blocks.

The Paladins play their second match of the Dolphin Classic at 4 p.m. versus South Florida.