The O’Neal School’s volleyball team cruised to a straight-set victory over Grace Christian of Sanford Tuesday in its season-opener.

The defending Cape Fear Independent Conference champion Falcons posted 32 aces in the match and won by set scores of 25-15, 25-15 and 25-14.

“I thought they did a great job for their first game,” coach Kendall Harper said of her players. “You could tell they had a little bit of nerves, but their passing was excellent, their serving was excellent, and I just think they need to work a little bit more on their hitting, following through and snapping at the end.”

Senior setter KellyAnn Miller led the effort with 11 assists, five aces and four kills. Junior Claire Russell was the kills leader with seven, and seniors Katie Tighe and Ginny Wollens added three kills apiece.

Tighe led the team in aces with 12, including nine in the final 10 points of the third set, while Wollens posted 10 aces.

The Lady Falcons finished 17-4 a season ago and advanced to the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association Class 2A quarterfinals. While Harper doesn’t expect the team to be quite that competitive this year — she says Village Christian and Fayetteville Christian will duke it out for the conference championship — she does think the Falcons have the potential to surprise.

“I lost six seniors, so everybody expects us to be low,” she said. “We’re kind of underdogs this year, but that’s a good thing, because we do have a lot of talent. We just have to work a little bit harder than we did last year.”

O’Neal is back in action Thursday playing Lee Christian in Sanford at 5 p.m.