Covenant volleyball was moving things around again Wednesday night. The return of Cara Hamil from an injury was a major boost for the Eagles, but Hamil, one of the area’s best all-around players, was limited to back line duties.
“We’re really excited for Cara to be back and I think everyone is just working really hard and doing our job,” said Covenant’s Maya Veselinovic. “We’re all trying to come together and win as many games as we can.”
Any awkward adjustments to the re-tooled lineup didn’t show much as the Eagles dispatched a scrappy Miller School squad 3-0, winning 25-16, 25-18 and 25-12 in the Blue Ridge Athletic Conference semifinals to set up a Covenant versus New Covenant rematch in the BRAC championship Friday.
“We’ve been preparing for New Covenant ever since we lost to them in conference and we’re going to go into our game really, really prepared,” Veselinovic said. “We just really want it.”
To make up for Hamil not being on the front line, the Eagles got big time performances from eighth grader Kella Lemcke who had 12 kills, sophomore Miller Grimes who had 10 kills and Kerrigan Poindexter who notched eight kills. Delaney Poindexter also stepped up in a big way as an outside hitter, and finished with nine digs on the night.
“I am lucky to have athletic and versatile volleyball players where they’re prepared at any notice to play a different position,” said Covenant coach Bethany Davis. “We kind of run a funky lineup with middles and right sides switching, so it plays to our advantage when we do lose people that we can stay in system and be aggressive.”
Lemcke also had a big day at the service line with seven aces while Veselinovic had 34 assists and a trio of aces.
Hamil had 15 digs in her return to the lineup.
Miller made things tough on Covenant throughout with some solid defensive play, but the Mavericks couldn’t find an answer for the Eagles’ diverse offense.
Now the Eagles (19-5) turn their attention to the rematch with a 23-2 New Covenant squad that swept Covenant back on October 12th.
“We had a lot of momentum but then had a big lineup change and that kind of caught us off guard but we’ve adapted,” Davis said.
