LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN -- The temperature was chilly outside, but inside Barnes Physical Education Center the heat was turned up on Tuesday night.
The Covenant volleyball team played the school's first-ever home USA South match against division rival Piedmont. After winning the first two sets, the Lady Scots were downed by the visiting Lions 3-2 (16-25, 23-25, 25-16, 27-25, 15-10) in front of a large and vocal crowd.
Covenant (7-6, 0-2 USA South) seemed to feed off the energy of the home blue and white fans as they took the first set with ease 25-16. Covenant had 12 kills in the game and led almost throughout. Covenant gained its largest lead in the set at 19-8 after three straight points and a kill from Hannah Rogers.
The Lady Scots were not quite as dominating in the second set but still made the plays down the stretch as they secured eight of the final 10 points in the game to take a 2-0 match lead. The final stretch saw Rogers get three kills while Chelsea VanDyk added two as Covenant eyed a big conference win.
Piedmont, who leads the South division and the USA South with a 3-0 league mark and 13-1 overall, would not go down quietly though. The Lions jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the third set and had Covenant playing from behind the rest of the game. Piedmont used 14 kills and a .294 attacking percentage to make it a 2-1 Covenant lead heading to the fourth set.
Again Covenant fell behind early in the fourth set as Piedmont rolled out to a 4-0 edge. The Lady Scots would rally to tie the score at five off a kill from Stephanie Kirkpatrick and the teams would trade points for most of the rest of the set. Covenant trailed 23-20 before tying the set at 25 apiece with another VanDyk kill. But Piedmont had the answer as kills from Kaitlin Norman and Danielle Maffett gave the visitors the game and knot the match at 2-2.
In the deciding set, Piedmont raced out to a 3-0 lead before Covenant scored three straight. Piedmont would make its run as they scored seven of the next eight points for a 10-4 lead. Covenant tried to mount a rally late as they trimmed the deficit to 14-10, but a service error ended the match.
Rogers had another career-high performance for Covenant as she tallied 19 kills to go along with five digs. Kirkpatrick registered 49 assists and 22 digs while Cora Schroeder also had a double-double with 11 kills and 18 digs with four block assists. VanDyk, seeing her first action since recovering from an injury, had 16 kills and three solo blocks. Caroline Cone added nine kills and three block assists.
Defensively, Estes Carlson led the Lady Scots with 23 digs while Mariah Corney had 14 and Jaclyn Stuart added 13.
Piedmont was led by Norman who posted 19 kills and just one error for a .474 attacking percentage. Taylor Cramsey had 10 kills and eight digs. Katheryn Knarr and Xandy Green recorded 27 and 21 assists, respectively. Knarr also had 16 digs. Katie Faith led the Lions defense with 33 digs as Piedmont out-dug Covenant 121-109.
Covenant returns to the court on Saturday when they travel to LaGrange, Ga., to take on USA South foes Huntingdon (12:00 p.m.) and LaGrange (4:00 p.m.).
