September 3, 2009 - UNION CITY
The Covington Lady Buccs captured a huge win Thursday evening over Mississinawa Valley, a team considered one of the top teams in the Cross County Conference.

"This was a big win for us because they (Mississinawa Valley) have been one of the teams people were talking about as the team to beat in the league," said Covington coach Jim Smith after his team swept all three games. "Plus, they were the only team to give us a conference loss last year, so it was a big win for the girls."

Especially after Covington began the season on Monday with a win over Fairlawn, despite not playing its best volleyball.

"This was a huge improvement over Monday," Smith explained. "We served better, played better defensively and hit the ball better. All the way around we were better tonight."

Much of the improvement was due to adjustments made from film study.

"When we watched the film from Monday we saw we were out of position at times," Smith continued. "We made some adjustments in practice and the results showed tonight."

Rachel Rindler led the way defensively with 15 digs, while the blocking at the net was a team effort.

"Rachel had a big game and we had five or six girls with blocks," said Smith. "Alyssa had 25 assists and eight kills and Emily Henry led us with 12 kills, so it was a team effort. Everybody contributed."

The contest was close throughout, but Covington took all three games by the scores of 25-23, 25-18 and 27-25 to improve to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the CCC.

But the celebration is short lived as Covington still has a tough road ahead to defend its conference championship from a year ago.

"We won't get too excited because we still have a lot of good teams to play," Smith said. "Twin Valley South and Tri-County North are usually good and National Trail has some nice players back. Plus, Miami East has some good, young talent and they are well coached. There's a lot of tough games ahead of us."

But Covington couldn't have asked for a better start.