STARKVILLE, Miss. – The Niagara Purple Eagles started play at the Bulldog Invitational by falling to Mississippi State and Wofford on Friday.

"Up to this point our losses were a function of needing development and maturing as a team, but today's matches brought in a new variable with the breakdown of some of our fundamental skills," head coach Vilis Ozols said. "We'll just keep developing and address these as a team."

Niagara 0, Mississippi State 3

Niagara (0-8) fell to the host in straight sets, 25-13, 25-17, 25-19, in its first-ever match against an SEC opponent.

The match started promising for the Purple Eagles as they jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the opening set with a  couple of kills from Amanda Sedore.  MSU (4-4) answered with a 9-1 run en route to winning the set 25-13.

After dropping the second set 25-17, the Purple Eagles battled the Bulldogs for every point in the third set. Niagara was tied with MSU at 18-18 and trailed 20-19 after a kill by freshman setter Emily Hopkins. The Bulldogs, however, maintained at least a two-point lead to close the set and match.

Sedore led the team in kills for the fifth straight match with eight tallies. Logan Rae added six kills and had a team-best .238 hitting percentage. Allison Reis and Alex Stone were in double-digit digs with 18 and 11, respectively.

Wofford 3, Niagara 0

Niagara lost in straight sets (25-13, 25-19, 25-21) to Wofford (3-4) in its second match of the day.  The Purple Eagles succumbed to key runs by Wofford in the first two sets. The Terriers used a 12-2 run with the set tied at 5-5 to take over the first set.

Wofford slowly pulled away in the second set, again with the scored tied at 5-5. The Terriers built a six-point advantage and kept that cushion to win the set to take a 2-0 lead.

However, the Purple Eagles didn't go away quietly.  Niagara opened the third set by taking a 4-1 lead and eventually led 15-10 before Wofford mounted a comeback. The Terriers tied the match at 17-17 and the set went back-and-forth until Niagara went up 21-20 on a kill by Sedore. Though, Wofford reeled off the match's final five points to seal the win.

Sedore led Niagara in kills for the sixth straight match with eight kills. Rae tied a season-high in digs with a team-best 11.

The Purple Eagles will play these two teams again on Saturday starting with Wofford at 4:30 p.m. followed by Mississippi State at 7:30 p.m.