MARION, Ind. -- There is no place like home for the Indiana Wesleyan University volleyball team as they began their home portion of the schedule with two wins tonight at the IWU Invitational in Luckey Arena.

Indiana Wesleyan is hosting the eight team invitational as each team will play twice today and two more times on Saturday. IWU started with a 25-23, 25-16, 25-11 victory over Judson (Ill.) and completed the evening with a 25-19, 25-14, 25-21 victory against Indiana Tech.

“It’s been a rough start,” said IWU head coach Candace Moats. “We have a lot of young kids and they have been working hard. It was great to feel like everything came together tonight, not only in their play, but in their spirit, everything just gelled. They persevered. Everyone in the locker room said that the joy came back tonight and that was an exciting opportunity for us.”

The Wildcats opened the season last week at the Grand View Invitational in Des Moines, Iowa. IWU went 1-3 that weekend, including a pair of losses to top-10 ranked teams. The two wins tonight move the Wildcats to 3-3 on the season.

A big reason for the optimism Friday night was the play of Remy Bucknor (SO/Euless, Texas). Bucknor had eight kills with a .800 hitting percentage in the opener against Judson and finished with 12 more kills plus a .706 hitting percentage versus Indiana Tech.

“Remy was probably my greatest joy tonight,” said Moats. “She has been working really hard. It has been a bit of a rough start for her this season. Instead of going in a spiral downward and sinking she just stepped up and kept at it and worked at it. And tonight we saw the Remy we are used to and I still think she’ll hit another level.”

Indiana Wesleyan was led by Bianca Cifaldi (SO/Itasca, Ill.) with 10 kills in the opening match with Judson. Morgan Miller (FR/Goshen, Ind.), Kylie Portera (SO/Lake in the Hills, Ill.), and Alijah Mulitauopele (SR/Colorado Springs, Colo.) each added six kills. IWU had 31 assists in the win with Katey Holler (JR/Marion, Ohio) earning 16 and Emily Workman (FR/Tinley Park, Ill.) adding 15. Banner Rodgers (FR/Carrollton, Texas) served three of the five Indiana Wesleyan aces.

The Wildcats blocked nine shots versus the Golden Eagles and were led by Portera with three solo blocks and three block assists. Ten Wildcats combined for 31 digs and Holler paced the club with seven and Ashlen Buck (SO/Brazil, Ind.) tallied six.

In the Friday finale, Miller added eight kills with Cifaldi hitting seven. Holler assisted on 21 kills and Workman finished with 13. Rodgers once again led the team in service aces with four.

Buck earned a match best 13 digs in the victory over Indiana Tech while Bucknor, Miller, Portera, and Mulitauopele each collected two block assists.

The IWU Invitational restarts tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Indiana Wesleyan plays their first match at 12 p.m. vs. Rio Grande (Ohio) and closes the weekend at 4 p.m. against Cardinal Stritch (Wis.).