Eagles cruise past Cougars

The Covenant volleyball team was more than happy to jump into LIS play after a long weekend in the Albemarle Invitational.

Hosting Collegiate, the Eagles bounced back by defeating the Cougars 3-1 on Tuesday evening.

“I was real proud of them in the third game,” said Covenant (7-4, 1-0 LIS) coach Annette Williams. “They came out fired up but played relaxed and had more fun with it, and that was the difference in the third and fourth games.”

After winning a close first game, the Eagles squandered a seven-point lead in the second to let Collegiate (7-8, 3-1) to tie things up.

“I thought we started out sluggish,” Williams said. “We’re dealing with some youth so those butterflies tend to start to come out and things get a little tense sometimes.”

However, Covenant responded after dropping the game by playing its best volleyball of the night in the final two games.

Senior Ellen Smethurst led the way for the Eagles both on offense and defense. The senior middle hitter had a game-high 20 kills to go with five blocks.

“Once our passes got on target that put us in position and made it easy for our hitters,” Smethurst said. “This was a key game to set the tone for the rest of the season. It was a good win.”

Connor Adams also played a pivotal role on defense.  The freshman outside hitter came up with four blocks and contributed a pair of aces and four kills.

Collegiate’s front line played well on offense, but were overshadowed by the mental mistakes and mis-hitting on defense.

“We’re a young team and sometimes that’s what happens, but we didn’t lose for a lack of effort,” said Collegiate coach Bill Shalley. “They controlled the ball and played very well. But we’ll see them again. It comes down to the two of us every year.”

Last year, Covenant defeated Collegiate in the regular season, only to fall to the Cougars in the LIS Championship.

“We don’t want to repeat that again,” Williams said. “We want to keep getting stronger and better and this team has the potential, we just have to keep working hard.”

Covenant travels to Trinity Episcopal on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.