Preseason USA South volleyball favorite Maryville used a steady attack to defeat the Covenant volleyball team 3-0 (25-21, 25-8, 25-17) on Tuesday night in Maryville, Tenn., to open the conference slate.
The loss for Covenant snaps a brief two-game winning streak and puts the Lady Scots at 6-3 overall and 0-1 in league play. Maryville, who played a tough non-conference schedule, goes to 2-12 and 1-0 inside the conference.
The Lady Scots hung with the favorites in the conference in the first set as they took a 20-18 lead after an attack error from Maryville. However, the home team would rally and score seven of the final eight points to come away with the set victory.
Maryville seized an early lead in the second set and never let Covenant back into it as they rolled to a 25-8 win. Maryville also controlled the third and final set as they never trailed. The hosts had 14 kills in the second set and 16 more in the third, while hitting above .300 in each game.
Covenant was led by Cora Schroeder, Caroline Cone and Hannah Rogers as each registered five kills. Stephanie Kirkpatrick tallied 15 assists, eight digs and two kills. Estes Carlson led the Lady Scots defense with 13 digs to go along with a service ace and an assist.
Maryville got 11 kills from Kelsey Handel, 14 assists from Lauren Bone and 10 more assists from Megan Kaylor. Kristen Sharp added nine kills while Julia Vineyard had eight. Sophia del Campo recorded eight digs.
Covenant will return to non-conference play thisd weekend at the Emory Invitational in Atlanta. The Lady Scots face Wellesley on Friday at 4 p.m., followed by two matches on Saturday against Emory & Henry (10:30 a.m.) and host Emory (1 p.m.).