Lady Buffs make short work of Covenant

By Travis Brown
STAR STAFF
tbrown@starhq.com

   The Milligan College Lady Buffalo volleyball team made quick work of the Covenant Lady Scots Saturday evening, with an impressive show of talent and team effort.
   With solid play from every position and consistent momentum, the Lady Buffs took the first three games in a the best-of-five series by scores of 30-26, 30-22 and 30-20.
   First-year head coach Kim Hyatt was pleased with her team's performance and continued improvement.
   "We stayed pretty steady throughout the game," said Hyatt. "They played with more enthusiasm and they had fun."
   Its easier to have fun while winning, and the Lady Buffs spent most of the match in the driver seat. The first game was the closest, however, as both teams were searching for their rhythm. The resulting back-and-forth battle made for a good dose of excitement
   With momentum switching from side-to-side, the Lady Scots appeared to be taking control as they led 19-16. Milligan scored a pair of points and appeared to take command. After a Covenant time-out, the Lady Buffs put the hammer down and pulled away.
   The first game was capped off by a strong kill from senior Christina Medlin, whose drive put Milligan up 1-nil.
   The second game started off strong for Covenant as it took a 7-3 lead and looked to be pulling away once again. A nice play at the net by Wendy Weaver helped to pull the Lady Buffs even midway through the second game. The backcourt came together as well, thanks to solid passing from senior Melanie Reed.
   Hyatt would later comment on the steady play of her club, "They stayed focused. We got better position wise and overall, all players contributed."
   The team effort helped Milligan take a commanding 22-15 lead as all parts of the game seemed to gel midway through the second game. Reed added a big spike later on in the contest to increase the lead out to 8.
   After a solid kill from C.J. Eisenburg, the comeback effort was subdued and Covenant fell behind 2-0.
   The final game was all Buffaloes. After opening up a 2-0 lead, Covenant would not see the lead again, as the Buffs opened up a 13-7 lead.
   The Buffs did show signs of slowing down about midway through the third set, as Covenant took advantage of some miscommunication and scored five consecutive points to pull within five.
   Hyatt took a time-out, and the Lady Buffs responded with a pair of strong points. Despite a last-ditch effort led by Covenant's Kelli Zeemer, the Buffs were just too much and they walked away with the 33-20 victory, sweeping the match in three straight.
   Reed led almost every statistical category with 21 assists, 7 digs and 4 blocks, as her play both defensively and at the net contributed to Milligan's dominance.
   At the net it was all Medlin as her 18 kills led the team and put a strong exclamation point on the Buffalo victory.
   Despite the convincing win, Hyatt saw the victory as another step on the way to the top.
   "We have been working on our defense a lot," said Hyatt. "Our defense is getting better and it showed in this game."
   With the win, the Lady Buffs move to 5-0 in the conference with an overall mark of 11-3. With continued improvement and enthusiasm, this squad has the potential to impress come tournament time.