September 29, 2009 - COVINGTON
The Covington Lady Buccs overcame a young, talented Miami East team and an animated crowd to capture a 3-1 victory over the visiting Vikings, Tuesday.

"This is the first time I've seen the focus we need to have to become a good volleyball team," said Covington coach Jim Smith after his team won by the scores of 21-25, 25-23, 25-19 and 25-19. "We have a long way to go, but we're starting to see the potential."

Miami East showcased the potential of great things in the future as a team with a lot of freshman and sophomores took it to Covington in the first game for a 25-21 victory.

And it was apparent that the youngsters were feeding off a crowd that turned Covington's gymnasium into their own home-court advantage.

"They feed off emotion, but they are young and very talented" Smith praised of Miami East. "They'll be good for a while."

The youth of Miami East's roster showed in the second game as Covington came back from an early 6-1 deficit to take a 25-23 victory.

"We made a lot of mistakes early on and they (Miami East) played very well," Smith explained. "But once we had a run in the second game you could see the tide turning. It sort of took their crowd out of the game."

The turnaround for Covington was due to aggressive play, both offensively and defensively.

"Once we started to become aggressive we took over the match," said Smith. "Our defense started focusing, our serving was good and we kept the pressure on offensively."

And the straw that stirred the drink was senior Alyssa Angle, who consistently caught Miami East off guard with timely tips while setting up teammates for opportunistic kills. Angle recorded 31 assists and a team-high 13 kills on the evening.

"Alyssa took over the match," Smith said. "She sees the court so well and was able to take advantage of their defenders being out of position. She did a good job of finding our hitters in spots where they could put the ball away."

Once Angle and Covington found the key to success, the Lady Buccs cruised through the third and fourth games by the scores of 25-19 and 25-19.

"I felt we controlled the last two games," said Smith. "We eliminated the mistakes and kept the pressure on them by staying aggressive."

Still, Miami East's Leah Dunivan made an impression with her presence at the net. The freshman sensation was a blocking machine throughout the evening.

"She's a darn good player," Smith praised. "We made the mistake of hitting the ball right at her at times, but you can see she's going to be a very good player for a long time."

Rachel Rindler also made an impression for Covington as she recorded 31 digs on the night.

"Rachel struggled a little bit early with serve-receive, but she picked it up as the match went on," said Smith.

Caitlyn Crawford and Emily Henry each had 12 kills in steady performances, but it was Josselyn Tobias who overcame a sluggish start to record three of the biggest kills in the match - even after taking a knee to her neck while diving after a ball.

"Tobias had three big kills for us," Smith said. "They came at critical times when they (Miami East) were building some momentum. The thing about the kills is she hit the spots we asked her to hit.

The hard fought victory improves Covington to 13-3 overall and 8-1 in the Cross County Conference.

The Lady Buccs will be tested once again on Saturday as they host Jackson Center.