The Covenant volleyball team narrowly missed going 2-0 on Saturday at the Maryville College Invitational as the Lady Scots suffered a pair of five-set defeats. Covenant fell to Washington & Lee in the opener before dropping a tough contest to Lynchburg in the finale.
The losses drop the Lady Scots to 1-2 on the year. It was the first meetings all-time in program history with Washington & Lee and Lynchburg.
MATCH ONE: Washington & Lee 3, Covenant 2
Facing the preseason ODAC favorite, Covenant came out strong by taking the first two sets of the match before the Generals rallied for the victory in a tightly played contest throughout.
Covenant took the opening set 27-25 by registering 16 kills and a .279 hitting percentage.
Ginny Moore led the way with seven kills in the set and Chelsea VanDyk added five of her own. It was more of the same in the second set as Covenant racked up a .333 hitting percentage with 13 total kills as it took a 25-15 set win.
The tables started to turn in the third set as W&L rallied for a 25-23 victory to keep the match alive. The Generals knotted the contest at 2-2 with a 25-21 win in the fourth set.
In the deciding set, Covenant grabbed an 11-9 lead after a VanDyk kill and would later lead 14-13 on a Moore kill. W&L secured the final three points of the set to cap the comeback victory.
Moore and VanDyk were tremendous throughout the match as both tallied 20 kills. VanDyk totaled just four attack errors in 37 attempts for a .432 percentage, while Moore also collected a team-high 23 digs for her second straight double-double.
Schuyler Moore accumulated a career-high 53 assists to go along with 17 digs and five kills. Morgan Opgenorth had eight kills, while Ariana Buchanan added 20 digs. Jaclyn Stuart contributed 12 digs and Hannah Rogers had six kills, three service aces and six total blocks (two solo and four assisted).
W&L (3-2) was led by Anna Lausberg's 16 kills and 16 digs while Elena West had 39 assists and 12 digs.
MATCH TWO: Lynchburg 3, Covenant 2
Covenant had a 2-1 match lead in Saturday's finale, but Lynchburg rallied to take the final two sets and give the Lady Scots their second straight loss in five sets.
Ginny Moore had 20 kills for a second consecutive match and also added 17 digs in the loss. Schuyler Moore registered 41 assists, 15 digs and six kills while Opgenorth produced a career-high 10 kills.
Covenant dominated play in the opening set taking a 25-14 victory. The Lady Scots had 11 kills and took advantage of Lynchburg's negative hitting percentage (-.114) to grab an early lead. A kill from Maddie Wieskamp ended the set as Covenant took five of the final seven points.
In a back-and-forth second set, Lynchburg rallied to tie the match at 1-1 with a 25-23 win. Covenant led by four points (7-3) early on, but neither team would lead by more than three points the rest of the way. The Hornets broke a 23 all tie with a kill from Amelia Dalton and a Covenant error to earn the win.
Covenant regained the lead in the third set with a 25-21 victory. The Lady Scots outscored the Hornets 11-7 over the final 18 points, capped by a Ginny Moore kill, to take a 2-1 match lead.
But the final two sets would belong to Lynchburg. The Hornets seized control of the fourth set midway through en route to a 25-17 victory and rally from an early deficit in the fifth set for a 15-9 win.
Rogers added nine kills, while Buchanan and Hannah Stewart had 16 and 12 digs, respectively, for Covenant in the loss.
Jennifer Garrett led Lynchburg (2-2) with 16 kills and 16 digs, while Dalton added 10 kills and 14 digs.
Covenant will be back in action at the Emory Classic on Sept. 11-12 in Atlanta. The Lady Scots will face 2014 national runner-up Emory on Sept. 11 at 5 p.m.