September 22, 2009 - LEWISBERG
In a battle between the only two teams with unblemished conference records, the Covington Lady Buccs came up on the short end at Tri-County North.

The host Panthers swept all three games by the scores of 25-16, 25-23 and 25-23 to put themselves in the driver's seat for the Cross County Conference title.

"They (Tri-County North) had a big crowd and they were loud," said Covington coach Jim Smith. "We made some mistakes and they just got louder and the kids let it affect them."

And the Panther players fed off of the home fans.

"Tri-County North was pumped up, that's for sure," Smith said. "They played very well and we didn't. That was the difference."

Covington started out playing well, but one mistake led to another and it snowballed throughout the match.

"We started out fine, but made a few mistakes that got us out of a rhythm," said Smith. "We had a lot of serve receive errors tonight."

With things not going its way, Covington lost focus as the match progressed.

"Defensively, we were just slow and that was a lack of focus," Smith explained. "We were slow getting to our blocks, slow getting to the ball, just slow all the way around. And they (Tri-County North) made us pay for it."

Seniors Rachel Rindler (19 digs) and Alyssa Angle (13 digs) attempted to keep Covington in the contest and nearly pulled it off in the second and third games.

"Our seniors tried to pick us up," said Smith. "But the effort as a team wasn't good enough."

Which led to Covington's first loss in the conference at 5-1 and second loss of the season at 9-2.

The Lady Buccs look to rebound on Thursday at National Trail.