MARYVILLE, Tenn. -- Playing on the road does not seem to be a problem for the Covenant volleyball team this season.  Coming into Friday night's two road matches, the Lady Scots had played ten of their eleven matches this month away from Barnes Gymnasium, and having won four of the last five, they had every right to feel confident.

The Lady Scots scored two big wins over Great South Athletic Conference foes Salem College in straight sets (25-18, 25-13, 25-13) and Maryville College in five sets 3-2 (17-25, 25-22, 25-15, 20-25, 15-12).

The day started off great for the Lady Scots as they never trailed Salem College in the first set, pulling away at the end for the game win.  Covenant would dominate the Spirits in the second set as well, jumping out to a quick 12-2 lead and cruising the rest of the game.  And the third and final set posed no problems for the Lady Scots either, as they rattled off 12 straight points, aided by 3 Erica Adams kills, to break an 8-8 tie en route to an easy set and match win.

Match number two of the night pitted the Lady Scots versus their counterparts, the Lady Scots of Maryville College.  These two teams had met earlier in the year at Barnes Gymnasium with Maryville pulling out a five-set victory.

Covenant was looking for a little revenge in this one, but came out of the gate struggling as Maryville got out to a 9-1 lead before Covenant knew what had hit them.  Covenant could not recover from that deficit and dropped the set 25-17.  Maryville looked to have control in the second set as well, but Covenant finished off the game with an 8-3 scoring run, taking advantage of seven Maryville errors during the run, to even up the match at 1-1.

Covenant seemed to gather momentum and confidence from the late second set surge into the third set. Covenant's Lady Scots never trailed in the set and attacked with aggression to the tune of 13 kills for the set, five alone from Jessie Jakes. Maryville would not go quietly, however, as they regrouped and claimed a fourth set win to setup a decisive fifth set once again.

Head Coach Heather Taylor and her Covenant Lady Scots have not had success this year in matches that go into the fifth set; the Lady Scots were 0-6 coming into the match.  So with a determination not to let that happen again in this one, Covenant scored five of the final six points to win the set 15-12 and complete the road trip a perfect 2-0.

Offensively for the Lady Scots, Jessie Jakes was the main force behind the two wins.  Jakes had just 7 kills and 10 digs against Salem, but against Maryville, she was unstoppable in getting 21 kills and 12 digs.  Erica Adams had 22 kills combined for both matches, and Kristin Dahlstrand continued her impressive play recording 23 assists against Salem and 44 against Maryville.

Covenant is now four games over .500 at 15-11 on the season, the most games they have been over .500 all year.  They also improve their record over NCAA schools to 12-5 and 8-2 against GSAC schools.

Covenant returns home for its next match against Agnes Scott College on Thursday October 28 at 6:30pm.