PULASKI, Tenn. – There truly is no place like home.

At least for the Martin Methodist Volleyball team, who bounced back after a shaky start to the season with a dominating 3-0 victory (25-15, 25-17. 25-14) over Talladega College Thursday night.

After an early series of rallies in the first game saw the RedHawks (1-3) tied 10-10 with the Tornadoes (0-5), the RedHawks then rattled off 15 of the next 20 points to take a 1-0 lead.

From there, the RedHawks never looked back, taking the second game 25-17 and finishing the Tornadoes off with a 25-14 third-game victory.

"Getting off to a good start tonight was huge for us," RedHawks head coach Rose Powell said. "It set the tone for us. We are still a very young team and we needed that momentum early."

Despite being a young team, the RedHawks relied on an old veteran, Ya Zhao to shoulder the load offensively.

The senior from Tang Gu, China finished with a team-high seven kills and also provided quality service and blocking.

Newcomers Samantha Fitzgerald (six kills)and Flavia Costa (five kills) also turned in solid offensive outings. Fellow freshman Sophia Paes led the team with seven assists.

"We got a really good effort from pretty much everyone on the court tonight," Powell said. "I thought we started to finally click a little bit and that definitely showed. Being in a familiar environment definitely helped calm us down."

With the win, the RedHawks now figure to have some confidence heading into their second weekend tournament of the season, this time at the Faulkner Invitational in Montgomery, Ala.

The RedHawks will play four matches over the weekend, beginning with a pair of contests against Reinhardt University and Brenau University on Friday.

MMC will wrap up its weekend trip with a pair of Saturday matches against Faulkner State and Spring Hill College.