The Lady Buccs were stunned by Fairlawn in the sectional tournament at Sidney High School.

OCTOBER 21, 2006 – SIDNEY
The 2006 volleyball season began less than two months ago with the Lady Buccs defeating Fairlawn in three straight games on the Jets home floor.

Fairlawn got its revenge in the Sectional Finals on Saturday by handing Covington a 3 games to 2 defeat in a back-and-forth match at Sidney High School.

"I was concerned about this match," said Covington coach Stephanie Robinson. "We didn't have a very good practice on Friday and I knew Fairlawn was playing well because of what they did against Botkins. I also knew Fairlawn would come in and play with a lot of emotion."

Covington was also playing solid volleyball prior to the Sectional Final as evident by a three-game winning streak and a dominant performance against Southeastern on Wednesday.

But, it didn't translate into a Sectional Championship as Covington fell by the scores 25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 22-25, 13-15.

"The second game cost us - big time," said Robinson. "We had a chance to go up 2-0, but had some breakdowns late in the game that cost us. We missed a golden opportunity to take control of the match."

After winning the third game 25-20, Covington played from behind throughout the fourth game. Fairlawn never would surrender the lead as Amanda Francis always seemed to find the mark for a momentum-breaking kill, which led to the match being tied 2-2.

"We knew what they were going to do, set Francis," Robinson described. "We knew where they were going to hit the ball, but we didn't stop it."

Fairlawn jumped out to an 8-4 lead to start the fifth and deciding game, but Covington was able to come back and tie the match at 13-13 to force a Jet timeout.

Any dreams of a trip to the District Finals were dashed on two straight Covington mistakes, giving Fairlawn a 15-13 win.

The loss ends Covington's season at 17-7.

"I had higher expectations than this," concluded Robinson. "I thought we could get past District and have some confidence and momentum heading into the Regional Tournament. We didn't get it done."