COVINGTON – The improvement of the Covington volleyball team is evident, as the Lady Buccs defeated Troy Christian in five sets by scores of 25-20, 24-26, 25-16, 19-25 and 15-12.
A few weeks ago, Troy Christian defeated the Lady Buccs in four sets, which made this contest important for the team to see how much it has improved since then. It was apparent that the entire team has been working on what is needed to hopefully achieve success throughout the rest of the season.
Covington opened the match impressively, as the team took advantage of mistakes by Troy Christian to secure a victory in the first set. Unfortunately, the Lady Buccs had a golden opportunity to earn another victory in the second set, but Troy Christian was able to escape with a 26-24 win to tie the match at 1-1.
Dropping that set motivated the Lady Buccs to regroup, which was on display in the third set. Covington reclaimed the momentum and cruised to a 25-16 victory to put itself within one set of capturing the win.
Troy Christian, though, is a motivated team with talent, and the Eagles were able to put Covington in a tough situation by tying the match at 2-2 with a 25-19 victory in the fourth set.
The match was then decided in the fifth and final set, which was back-and-forth from start to finish. Fortunately, the Lady Buccs were able to make the plays needed down the stretch to close out a narrow 15-12 victory and win the match 3-2 over the Eagles.
“Setters Alison Sink, with 8 digs and 2 aces, and Aubrey did a great job pacing our offense with some tempo and allowing our hitters to be in a good position most of the night,” praised Covington coach Sloane Green. “I thought we played great defense at the net with middles Madelyn Batdorf and Chloe Allege, and in the back row Ramsé Vanderhorst with 18 digs and Nadia Ramires with 11 digs to keep us alive and fighting until the end.”
Also impressive for the Lady Buccs were Kylie Palsgrove with 14 kills and 10 digs, along with Ava Hartwig with 10 kills and 6 digs.
The way the entire team played was essential to the victory, and the Lady Buccs are now 9-8 overall and 5-5 in the TRC. Next up is a non-conference match at Arcanum on Monday.
