MARTINSVILLE, Va. – The South's third-seeded Covenant College ended Meredith's volleyball season early with a 3-1 (26-24, 22-25, 20-25, 16-25) upset in Friday's quarterfinal round of the USA South tournament. The Scots advanced to Saturday's semifinal pairing with Maryville College, undefeated in league play this fall and the South's top-seed.

In a tightly contested first set, Meredith, the second-seed in the North division, was down 16-10 when Jasmine Aguinaldo and Karlie Long landed a pair of kills and senior setter Clarke Glendenning launched a service ace. The trio of points ignited a 10-3 run that surged Meredith into the lead at 20-19 for the first time.

Cora Schroeder, one of two Scots with 15 kills on the day, ended the rally and MC's Emily Hendricks stepped in for a point on the next play.

Covenant added two more before the Avenging Angels put together enough points to secure the 26-24 win.

The Angels carried the momentum to an 11-7 lead in the second stanza. The Scots scored three consecutive points to pull to within one and forced the Meredith coaches to whistle for a timeout.

The strategy failed as Covenant went on to score nine of the next 13 points to edge past Meredith 19-15.

Another Hendricks kill followed by a solo stuff from senior middle Molly Markley forced a Covenant timeout. Jessica Goodwin followed the break with a service ace, and Markley landed another stuff and a kill to give Meredith a one-point advantage.

An unforced error gave the serve back to the Scots. Hannah Rodgers landed a trio of kills as Covenant pushed ahead for a 25-20 win to tie the match.

The Scots hit .471 as a team to capture a win in the third set and the Avenging Angels would never recover.

Long led the attack for Meredith with 14 kills, adding 11 digs. Hendricks also notched double-digit kills with 10, and Markly posted seven kills and seven blocks in the loss.

The senior setter duo of Anna Hayes and Glendenning contributed a combined 36 assists, and libero Emery McGee finished with a team-high 17 digs. Aguinaldo landed six kills in just 12 attempts for a .417 hitting percentage, adding five stuffs defensively.

Covenant's balanced attack was led by Schroeder and Rogers who tallied 15 kills apiece. Chelsea VanDyk and Anna Swain added 13 and 10, respectively, while setter Stephanie Kirkpatrick at the helm of the attack notched 46 assists.

Defensively, Estes Carlson led the Scots with 22 digs. VanDyk also contributed six blocks at the net.