Despite seven new faces and three missing ones from last season’s national champion Washington University women’s volleyball team, the results on the court through one week hardly looked different from those of teams of years past.

The top-ranked Bears hosted their first invitational of the season this past weekend, emerging victorious from the Washington University Classic with a pair of victories on Saturday and another pair on Sunday.

On Saturday, the Red and Green first made quick work of Fontbonne University with a 3-0 trouncing (25-7, 25-16, 25-15) and followed it up with a 3-1 victory (23-25, 25-16, 25-19, 25-19) over University of Wisconsin-Platteville in the evening. The team then came back out on Sunday and grabbed two more wins with 3-1 victories over Simpson College (25-18, 26-28, 25-15, 25-15) and DePauw University (25-9, 25-16, 24-26, 25-13).

“It was a really good first tournament for us,” sophomore Kelly Pang said. “There were some ups and downs, but it was a really good starting point and we learned a lot from this tournament and we’re just excited to get better.”

The Bears quickly overwhelmed Fontbonne, as they took the first set 25-7 and never looked back. All 18 players on the roster made their way into the match at some point, and juniors Lauren Budde and Kristen Thomas led the way with seven and six kills, respectively. Freshman Tanya Marvi picked up six service aces.

UW-Platteville initially presented more of a challenge, as the Bears dropped the initial set for the first time this season before rebounding to take the next three. Sophomore Drew Hargrave had 17 kills, while Budde followed with 16 kills along with three and a half blocks. Freshman Kaia Schwartz hit well, with 9 kills and a .500 hitting percentage for the match.

Against Simpson on Sunday, the Bears broke a 1-1 tie with decisive 25-15 victories in the third and fourth sets. Everyone got in on the action, as five players—Budde, Thomas, Hargrave, senior captain Marya Kaminski and freshman Meghan Byrne—picked up at least six kills while Pang, Budde and Marvi each tallied at least 13 digs.

Wash. U. jumped DePauw right out of the gate in Sunday’s final match, taking the first set 25-9 and winning the second as well. After DePauw managed to steal the third set, the Bears made quick work of the final set to take the match. Budde and Hargrave were again the leaders, with 17 and 14 kills, while sophomore Marilee Fisher picked up 51 assists.

For the weekend, Budde paced the team with 56 kills and 7.5 blocks, while Fisher racked up 161 assists and Pang collected 86 digs. Budde, Pang and Fisher were named to the all-tournament team.

Hargrave also tallied 43 kills in the four contests. Not to go unnoticed, however, was the Class of 2014; Byrne, Schwartz, Marvi and Tessa Blood picked up playing time in all four matches.

“Our first big college tournament; it’s kind of intimidating, just…the magnitude of it, but I think we got over that pretty quickly and we all played up to par,” said Byrne, who picked up 36 kills in the tournament.

The Bears will be in action again next weekend, with top-ranked teams coming in for the WU/Asics National Invitational. The team will face No. 7 Carthage College and No. 19 Saint Olaf College on Friday and will go up against No. 10 Ohio Northern University—who swept Wash. U. last season—and No. 11 Wittenberg University on Saturday.

“Not only are they good teams, they’re very motivated to play us. Sometimes that ranking, No. 1, is a bullseye, but we don’t mind it. If we are No. 1, let’s prove that we’re No. 1,” head coach Rich Luenemann said. “This weekend is going to be a bunch of shootouts, and there’s not going to be one easy match at all.”

The tournament will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Friday in the Wash. U. Field House.