The Warren East volleyball team opened its season in impressive fashion with a 3-0 (25-5, 25-11, 25-5) win over visiting Warren Central on Tuesday.

Warren East nearly led wire-to-wire, using a balanced attack to dominate at the net and breeze past the Lady Dragons.

“I have a lot of high expectations for our girls this year,” Warren East senior setter Kendall Bloyd said. “We have a lot of experience. We are older. We are ready for it. It’s our year to come through. We are ready to go.”

The Lady Raiders came roaring out of the gates, scoring the first five points and quickly pushing the advantage to 13-3. Warren East finished Game 1 with 10 kills from five different players and adding seven aces.

A service error gave Warren Central (0-2 overall, 0-2 District 14) a brief lead in Game 2 before Warren East scored three straight to take the lead for good. A 5-0 spurt midway through the game extended the lead to 16-7 and the Lady Raiders steadily pulled away from there.

It was all Warren East in Game 3, with the Lady Raiders jumping out to an 11-0 advantage and the Lady Dragons unable to get closer than 10 the rest of the way.

“Since May, these girls have been working hard,” WE coach Gary Bloyd said. “They’ve done their time and got their experience. We’ve got the size. We’ve got the talent. We’ve got the athletic ability to get it done this year.

“We are trying to tie up all the little things that have to be done to be an elite team.”

Five Lady Raiders had at least five kills. Caroline Forrester led the way with seven kills. Jordan Fulkerson and Morgan Krisher had six kills each, while Bloyd finished with five kills and five aces.

“We are all contributing and it is really coming together nicely,” Forrester said. “The end goal is to get out of district. It’s all coming together piece by piece and we are working hard each day and try to improve little by little.”

Aryelle Carter had a kill and Ariana Simmons had an ace for Warren Central.

“We had glimpses of good things, glimpses of bad things,” Warren Central coach Elle Ford said. “We can only go up (from here).”

Warren Central will play at South Warren at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Warren East will play Central Hardin in the Apollo Summer Slam at 8 p.m. Friday.