Riley Howe served up two aces to finish off a career night and lead the way for a Covenant volleyball victory over Oglethorpe, 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-19, 25-23), on Saturday afternoon for the Scots home opener inside the Barnes P.E. Center.
Howe recorded her first double-double of the season while recording career numbers with 15 kills, and 20 digs.
Allie Jakes got the scoring started with the first kill of the night in a back and forth first set. The set saw 10 ties and four lead changes.
The final tie came at 18 all before Covenant (1-7) was able to rattle off three straight points to stretch the lead. The Scots then took advantage of some Oglethorpe (4-3) errors to wrap up the first set 25-22.
Set number two was even tighter with 12 ties and five lead changes. Covenant kept the set close while trying to fight through the set. The Scots recorded 11 errors and only 11 kills but still evened the score at 23 before the Stormy Petrels scored the final two points to take the set 25-23.
Covenant jumped out to an 8-3 to open up set three and never looked back, taking the set 25-19. The Scots hit an efficient .257 with 16 kills on 35 attacks with only seven errors. It was Oglethorpe in this set that struggled to hit with only six kills to go with six errors.
Set four was a back-and-forth affair. The Scots found themselves tied again at 23, but this time would be victorious with a pair of Howe aces to wrap up the set and match to give Covenant it’s first win of the season.
Leah Buys was able to record a double-double of her own with a career-high 42 assists to go along with 14 digs.
Emily Moore recorded 18 digs for the Scots while Lindsey Stephens and Meriel Chupp had 11 and 10 kills respectively.
Jackie Schner led the Oglethorpe offense with 15 kills. Alex Prots had 15 digs in the contest while Monique Ellis had 12. Emma Williams recorded 24 assists on the day.
The Scots go back on the road to take on Millsaps and Berry in a tri-match on Sept. 21 at Berry. Millsaps is scheduled to being at 2 p.m. with the Berry match to follow at 4 p.m.