MOUNT BERRY, GA -- The Covenant Lady Scots volleyball team travelled to Mount Berry, Georgia this weekend to participate in the Berry College Invitational. It was a successful trip for the Lady Scots as they came away with two wins, one against Oglethorpe University and another against Methodist College, but Covenant also came up on the short end in two matches.
The tournament started off rough for the Lady Scots as Mississippi College proved to be too tough in the 25-15, 26-24, 25-17 defeat. Covenant was led by Erica Adams and her 12 kills with Kristin Dahlstrand also recording 13 assists.
Covenant recovered in their second match on Friday with a tough win over Oglethorpe University: 25-18, 25-27, 25-18, 26-24. The Lady Scots scored six of the final seven points in the first set, aided by four Oglethorpe errors and two Emily Stewart kills, to win the set.
After a back and forth second set that saw Oglethorpe tie the match up at one, Covenant rebounded with another strong performance in the third set to again regain control of the match. The Petrels then looked poised to force a fifth and deciding set, but the Lady Scots held them off for the 26-24 set win and a 3-1 match win.
Covenant was again led by Adams who had a monster match with 19 kills. Emily Stewart and Jessie Jakes each had double digits in kills as well with 11 and 10 respectively. Dahlstrand also had a good match, setting for Adams mostly, and got 30 assists of her own.
On Saturday, the Lady Scots faced a familiar foe in the Berry College Lady Vikings. After losing to Berry in the season opener less than two weeks ago, Covenant was looking for a little revenge on Berry's home floor. Berry had other thoughts, however, and again beat the Lady Scots in 3 games: 25-21, 25-20, 25-17.
In the final match of the tournament, Covenant returned to its winning ways with a victory over Methodist College: 25-22, 25-21, 21-25, 25-20. Covenant pulled away at the end of each of the first two sets to take a 2-0 lead.
Methodist fought back in the third set and claimed a 25-21 win, preventing a sweep from the Lady Scots. Covenant would get the match win in the fourth set by scoring the final six points of the set. The Lady Scots were led by Adams again as she recorded 11 kills on the day. Dahlstrand added 19 assists and Paige Cheney had a team high 20 digs.
At the conclusion of the tournament, Erica Adams was voted to the All-Tournament team for her outstanding play. Adams had 47 kills for the weekend and was key in giving Covenant two victories. Although not named to the All-Tournament team, Paige Cheney was certainly deserving of a mention. Cheney led all Lady Scots with 45 digs, an average of 3.75 digs per set. Jessie Jakes and Emily Stewart also had good tournaments as they had 26 and 23 kills, respectively.
The Lady Scots see their record go to 3-4, but hope to see the momentum from their last win continue over to this week as they will host Maryville College on Tuesday at Barnes Gymnasium.
