Italy — Before their final volleyball home game inside Italy Coliseum played on Tuesday, October 23, Lady Gladiator seniors Morgan Cockerham, Paola Mata and Alyssa Richards were honored with gifts from their teammates and coaches. Given a moment to dry their tears, head coach Jessica Robinson and assistant coach Tina Richards huddled the entire squad together for a pep talk before taking the court against Covington.

With Mata, Richards and Cockerham checking in, the first set was was all Lady Gladiators who wasted little time in building a strong lead over the Lady Owls. Italy eventually won the first set 25-14 to set the pace.

The second set was much tighter with Covington hitting their stride. Mata set up her teammates often on offense while Italy’s front line hitters including Alyssa Richards, Madison Washington, Jaclynn Lewis and Kortnei Johnson kept pressure on the Lady Owl defenders. Italy went on to finish the set strong edging Covington 25-20 to go up 2 sets to none.

The next two sets, however, went Covington’s way with the Lady owls landing key shots. Covington won the third set 25-21 and then outlasted Italy 29-27 in the fourth set to knot the match at 2-all, forcing a third set tiebreaker.

Lady Gladiator seniors Mata, Cockerham and Richards led their team in the fifth and final set with help from Paige Westbrook, Monserrat Figueroa, Bailey Eubank, Libero Tara Wallis, Lewis and Johnson to ground the Lady Owls’ offensive attack and to win convincingly, 15-9, to secure a final home victory for Italy’s seniors.

2012 Lady Gladiator Volleyball Roster:

Congrats, Seniors!