In front of the largest crowd of the season inside Barnes PE Center, the Covenant volleyball team opened up USA South play against reigning conference champion Maryville. The visiting Scots took the match in three sets by scores of 25-20, 25-21, 25-18.
Covenant falls for the second straight time to go to 9-5 overall and 0-1 in conference action. Maryville improves to 8-5 overall and 1-0 in league play.
Maryville took an early 5-4 lead in the opening set and would never trail again in the set.
Covenant sliced its deficit to 22-18 after a kill from Chelsea VanDyk, but the visiting Scots would score three of the final five points to take the set.
In the second set, the teams changed the lead five times and had 10 tie scores, but it was Maryville that would break an 18-18 tie to go ahead 23-19 before winning the set. It was more of the same in the third set as Covenant hung with Maryville through the midway point of the set before the visitors made a little run to capture the momentum.
Schuyler Moore led Covenant with nine kills and 14 assists to go along with seven digs. VanDyk also had nine kills with two digs and three block assists. Ginny Moore accumulated five kills, four assists and 13 digs, while Chloe Carlson had a team-high 15 digs. Stephanie Kirkpatrick added 13 assists and five digs.
Maryville was led by Kelsey Handel's nine kills. Lauren Bonee and Morgan Hall had 14 and 13 assists, respectively, while Mallory Bonee had a match-high 21 digs.
Covenant will travel to Atlanta on Saturday for two matches. The Lady Scots face Millsaps at 2 p.m., before going up against Oglethorpe at 4 p.m.