On a day full of adversity, the Pike Liberal Arts Patriots volleyball team swept their match against Crenshaw Christian in the season opener Thursday night in Troy.

After the junior varsity began the night with a victory in three sets, the varsity patriots won straight sets 25-14, 25-12, 25-14.

After beginning the summer with Madison Hulsey as their head coach, the Patriots recently decided to go another direction. On Thursday, Pike Liberal Arts named Mallory Floyd, Amy Allen and Greg Wilkins as acting coaches.

They put aside what could have been a possible distraction and started the year 1-0.

“This was a great victory for these girls,” Wilkins said. “They have had a lot of adversity today with the coaching change. They could have held their heads down there, but they came out here and they were ready to play. They were fired up. Every girl did their job and I am so happy about what each and every one of those girls did today.”

The Patriots scored 8 of the first 10 overall points in game one of Thursday night and led by as many as 11.

“It’s always good, especially when you’re at home, to get off to a good start,” Wilkins said. “We came out strong and took care of business like we should have.”

The Patriots forced the Cougars to play on their heels for the majority of the match, mainly because of their serves.

“We played together as a team,” Wilkins said. “This is the first time that I have seen the girls in a while together as a team. We served the ball extremely well. Mary Ramage was great on the serves, Ally Rushing, Morgan Bundy and the list goes on and on. We played like a team together and that’s all you can hope for.”

The Patriots rode that game one victory to two easy wins in game two and three by a combined score of 75-40.

Bundy led the Patriots in scoring with 22 points scored, while Ramage had 18 and Rushing had 12.

The Patriots hope to ride this momentum into game two on Monday when they host Abbeville Christian.

“It’s a long season,” Wilkins said. “Hopefully we can stay injury-free. We do have a good bench that we can use when we need other girls. The one thing about these girls is that they have a fire in them; they want to play and they want to win.”