BEREA, Ky. -- Down 2-1 in the match, the Covenant volleyball team rallied to force a fifth set and held off No. 2 seeded Berea for a five-set victory (21-25, 25-17, 23-25, 25-10, 15-13) in a USA South West Tournament first round match on Wednesday night.
Emma Kalbfleisch had a career-high 25 kills, with a hitting percentage of .548, and Rachel Bartlett added 47 assists, 13 digs, and eight kills in the comeback win for Covenant (10-8).
The No. 3 seed Covenant will advance to play No. 1 seed Maryville in the USA South West Championship on Saturday in Maryville, Tenn. Match time will be announced later.
The visiting Scots avenged a regular season loss at Berea (11-4) but had to do so by rallying back.
Covenant had seven-point leads in each of the first two sets, but only managed to split those frames. Berea took a 2-1 match lead with a 25-23 win in the third set as the Mountaineers pulled away late to take the win.
In the fourth, the Scots kicked the offense into gear. Covenant hit .500 as a team and collected 15 kills and coasted to a 25-10 win to set up a decisive fifth set.
Covenant trailed 9-6 in the fifth set, but rallied to tie the score at 10-10 before taking an 11-10 lead on a Kyla Bailey kill. The Scots went back to Kalbfleisch on her career night as the sophomore downed two kills in the final points to give the Scots a 14-13 lead before a Berea error capped the win for Covenant.
Kalbfleisch's 25 kills are the most in a match for the Scots since Ginny Moore had 28 in a win over Averett on Oct. 10, 2015.
Summer Johnson had nine kills and 11 digs while Reagan Keener had eight kills. Alexa Spurling added six kills as Covenant totaled 64 in the match and hit .249 as a unit. Covenant had a 64-56 edge in total kills and limited Berea to a .188 attack percentage.
In the back row, Anna Baldwin had a career-high 30 digs and Arianne Pascoe also had a career-high with 21 digs. Savannah Savage contributed 16 digs in the victory. Leah Buys had a match-high four aces.
Carolina Robles led Berea with 24 kills and Adrienne Roberts had 41 assists and 18 digs. Fabiana De'Jesus had 24 digs in the loss.
UP NEXT
Covenant will take on Maryville for the USA South West title on Saturday (time TBA). Covenant fell in five sets to Maryville in the USA South-counting match earlier this season.
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