Schuyler MooreIn one sense a glorious era of Covenant College volleyball is about to end, but part of the legacy of the Lady Scots' three seniors is that they have helped build a program that should continue to thrive.
The next loss will be the final match for twins Schuyler and Ginny Moore from Fort Myers, Fla., and Jessica Seehorn from Dalton, Ga., but their last loss was 17 matches ago.
The Lady Scots play today in an NCAA Division III regional hosted by Emory University in Atlanta. They face Birmingham-Southern at 12:30 p.m. for a chance to play again Friday and maybe again Saturday in the building where Covenant (24-7) last lost on Sept. 28.
When the Lady Scots trailed Averett 25-13, 25-17 in the best-of-five championship match in the USA South tournament last Saturday in Danville, Ga., Ginny Moore started thinking her career was about done.
"But then we won, and I had all these different feelings going on," she said.
She and the other two seniors were selected for the all-tournament team.
Averett, even at 32-4, did not get an at-large berth in the nationals, so Covenant surely would not have advanced without that amazing comeback. This is the Lady Scots' second national appearance in three years, and the three seniors have been big parts of an 89-43 record for their careers under coach Joanna Ehman, with three conference divisional championships to go with two tournament titles.
Ginny Moore
Jessica Seehorn
Joanna EhmanThe 16-match winning streak is a program record.
Setter Schuyler Moore has 3,753 career assists, the most in Covenant history. Her twin has 1,525 kills, 16 short of the school record, and also is second in digs with 1,810. Ginny has 345 kills and 499 digs this season, while Schuyler has 1,028 assists (8.9 per set), 360 digs, 133 kills and a team-high 65 aces. Seehorn and Ginny are second and third in aces with 42 and 41, and Seehorn has 232 kills and 296 digs.
"All three of them have worked so hard and had so many different roles. Jess has played everywhere except the middle," said Ehman, a former Covenant setter (as Joanna McGill) who played for and was an assistant coach for two years for her predecessor, Heather Taylor, and says she has reaped the benefits of Taylor's foundational work.
"These three have set great examples for the younger players coming up," Ehman added. "The leadership of this senior class definitely is going to be missed, but they have done a great job of taking the younger players under their wing and showing them how to take over."
Emily Moore, the twins' sophomore sister, has 365 digs; Hannah Stewart, a junior from Chattanooga Christian, has 363. Junior Hannah Harris has 231 kills, and sophomores Chloe Storm and Allie Jakes have 130 and 123, Jakes leading the team with 13 block solos and 82 block assists.
The older Moores are understandably proud of their sibling, who blossomed as a player after they graduated ahead of her from Evangelical Christian School. Emily did have thoughts, they said, of setting her own course instead of following them at Covenant, but their experience at the Lookout Mountain school was so positive for them and the family that she couldn't resist.
The twins actually figured their unified careers would end after high school. As a 5-foot-7 setter Schuyler was recruited more heavily than Ginny, who at 5-8 was not tall enough to attract major attention as a hitter. She had a chance to walk on as a defensive specialist at Liberty or Wake Forest, while Schuyler had interest from Liberty, Missouri, Baylor and Florida Gulf Coast.
"But the Lord through lots of family stuff led us to Covenant," Ginny said, adding with a laugh, "And I got to play front row. I love defense but I love hitting, too."
The Moores have an uncle on the Covenant board of trustees, and their high school is affiliated with the college.
Schuyler admitted she had to do some adjusting to playing Division III volleyball when she could have gone Division I.
"I was a bitter, prideful little girl the first few weeks of my freshman year," she said, but the campus environment, continuing to play with her twin and "playing for Coach Jo" got her out of that.
"I realized God put us here a hundred percent for a purpose," Schuyler said.
"A hundred percent," Ginny echoed, agreeing that she has enjoyed "competitive volleyball" with a balanced college life in which the sport doesn't dominate one's time. An English major, she will graduate in May and then add a Covenant master's degree in another year. Schuyler is a double major - in psychology and elementary education - and expects to be done in May 2019.
As a Christian Heritage senior, Seehorn was committed to Division II member King University, but the coach there resigned to go to seminary and left the recruiting class hanging.
Seehorn's church in Dalton, Grace Presbyterian, is connected to Covenant, and many of the members there had wanted her to go there anyway, so that was her fallback. And she's glad it was, although she came in as a setter and had to compete with Schuyler Moore.
While still serving as the "other" setter in practice through her junior season, Seehorn played elsewhere in matches and settled in as right side hitter. With the arrival of freshman setter Sophie Puertas, she finally got to practice full time at her match position this year.
"Having been a setter, I can read what Schuyler's doing, a lot like Ginny can with all the years they've been together," Seehorn said.
She'll graduate in May as a biology major and plans to teach high school science.
"Covenant has surprised me in all the good ways," Seehorn said. "And playing on this team and under a coach like Coach Jo has been awesome."
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.