The Oglethorpe volleyball team hosted its first tri-match of the season Saturday afternoon, with Millsaps and Covenant playing the Stormy Petrels in Dorough Field House. Unfortunately, things did not go well for the home side, as they lost both matches by a 3-0 scoreline.

In the first match, the Petrels took on SAA opponent Millsaps, which came into the match undefeated on the season. The Petrels had difficulty handling the Majors, falling in straight sets, 25-12, 25-17, 25-14. 

The Petrels had two competitors in double figures in digs, with senior libero Megan Makuck recording 12 of them and senior outside hitter Anna Marie DiSalvo collecting 10. Freshman setter Katie Stewart passed out 13 assists to lead the team while DiSalvo led the squad with eight kills. 

Up 4-3 early in the first set, Millsaps won three points in a row to take a 7-3 lead. After back-to-back Oglethorpe points, the Majors went on the run that would more-or-less clinch the set. They embarked on an 11-1 spurt to take an 18-6 lead in the opening stanza. A 5-2 run later in the set closed it out, giving them the 25-12 victory in the set.

In the second, the Petrels won five points in a row to take a 5-2 lead early on, but the Majors came right back to with four straight of their own and eventually gained a 10-7 advantage. The Petrels cut it back to one, 13-12, but Millsaps slowly started to pull away from there, eventually extending their lead to nine, 24-15. The Petrels held off a couple of set points, but Millsaps eventually closed it out, 25-17. 

In the third, the Majors ran out to a quick 9-2 lead and never really looked back. Oglethorpe won three in a row to cut the Millsaps lead to four, but they'd get no closer the rest of the set. Millsaps pulled away to close out the match with a 25-14 third-set victory.

In the second match of the day, the Petrels fell to in-state opponent Covenant, 25-19, 25-18, 25-15. The Petrels played somewhat better than in the Millsaps match, but still couldn't get over the hump against the visiting Scots. They were led by DiSalvo, who recorded 10 kills and 13 digs, and fellow senior outside hitter McKenna Bondarenko, who collected 13 kills. Stewart increased her assist total from the first match to 26 in this one, while Makuck also pulled 13 digs.

Covenant had an excellent first set that put the Petrels behind the eight-ball right away. With a big early run, they took a 14-8 lead over the Petrels. The two teams traded points for awhile and the Petrels began to come back, pulling to within three, 21-18. However, Covenant won three straight to get a set point at 24-18. The Petrels fought them off once, but Covenant finished it on the next point.

In the second set, the score was tied 3-3 until Covenant again went on a run, this time pushing out to an 11-5 lead. They qucikly extended it to 18-8 and seemed to be cruising from there, but the Petrels valiantly fought back with a six-point run of their own, making the score 23-17. However, the Scots won the final two points to take the set.

The third set began much the same way, with Covenant building a 13-7 lead. The Petrels won the next three points to cut the lead in half, but the Scots proceeded to run off 10 of the next 12 points to expand their lead to 23-12. The Petrels won three straight themselves, but Covenant closed out the proceedings by taking back-to-back points.

The losses drop Oglethorpe to 8-6 on the season headed into more tri-match action on Sunday. They'll welcome in SAA foe Birmingham-Southern at 11 a.m. before hosting Wesleyan (Ga.) at 3 p.m. Those two teams will face each other at 1 p.m. The Petrels have already defeated Wesleyan this season, downing them 3-0 in the season opener at the Huntingdon College Jubilee in Montgomery, Ala.