LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN -- Despite falling in the opening set, the Covenant volleyball team rallied to take the final three games as they claimed a 3-1 (20-25, 25-13, 25-20, 25-10) victory over Agnes Scott inside Barnes Physical Education Center on Tuesday night.
Before the match, Covenant honored its lone senior on this year's team, Estes Carlson. Carlson has been a part of the winningest four years in Covenant volleyball history with an 83-42 record and consecutive 20-win seasons, with a third still a possibility. The Eaton, Colo., native added 23 digs to her career total on Tuesday for 1,694 total and has played in every match throughout her four years.
In addition to her digs, Carlson also had five assists, four service aces and a kill in her final home match.
Once the action began, Covenant (17-10) got off to a sluggish start as Agnes Scott slowly built a six-point edge at 23-17. The Lady Scots trimmed that deficit to 24-20 on a Cora Schroeder service ace, but the visiting Scotties received a kill from Lexus Travis to end the game.
Covenant built an early lead in the second game and never looked back to knot the match at 1-1. The Lady Scots scored the final four points of the match with two of those coming on kills from Chelsea VanDyk. The same script played out in the third set as Covenant never trailed while accumulating 13 kills as a team to take a 25-20 win and a 2-1 match lead.
In the fourth set, Agnes Scott took a 6-3 lead, but eight straight points from Covenant gave them a lead they would not relinquish. Schroeder and Stephanie Kirkpatrick each had a kill during the 8-0 scoring spurt.
VanDyk tallied 13 kills while Hannah Rogers had 10 kills, five digs and three service aces. Kirkpatrick added 35 assists and 13 digs, her 14th double-double of the year, to go along with four service aces and a pair of block assists. Schroeder recorded nine kills with Caroline Cone and Anna Swain each getting six.
Agnes Scott (8-17) was led by Lauren Aikens' 15 kills. Shakirah Dodson had 24 assists and six digs. Shelli Sherman led the Scotties with 21 digs.
Covenant will play the final weekend of USA South regular season play on Saturday in Maryville, Tenn., against LaGrange (12 p.m.) and Huntingdon (2 p.m.).
