Peni Acayo beat the all time record for Kills for a GC volleyball player, but the Leafs still fell in the MCC final this weekend. Photo provided by Sports Information Department.

Following an epic five-set win over Marian University in the MCC Conference Semifinal last Thursday, the Goshen volleyball team looked to cap off their historic run to the team’s first MCC championship match appearance with an upset of NAIA #16 Taylor University.

Unfortunately, Saturday’s match at Taylor did not go well for Goshen as they fell in straight sets to the Trojans.  “We had a hard time at the net blocking their hitters.  I will also say that they were 2-5 inches taller across the front,” said head coach Jim Routhier.  “I think the team played very hard and with a lot of intensity Saturday.  We serve received pretty well and we never gave up.”

One of the highlights of the match came in the form of personal achievement.  Peni Acayo, a  junior, led the team with 17 kills, allowing her to pass alumnus Anna Herdeck’s mark of 1,431 for the Goshen College career kills record.  Acayo ended the season with 1,447 kills in her career, with her senior season still to come.  Coach Routhier had high praise for Acayo.  “Peni was voted MCC conference Volleyball Player of the Year. That tells it all.  She is the best player in our conference.  (She is) very well deserving of the record and the award.”

Four Goshen players, Peni Acayo, Kelsey Herschberger(JR), Ashley Janssen(SR) and Ali Hawkins(SR), were named all conference.

Given the success of the team this year, Routhier has high expectations for next season.  There is a solid group returning next year, and Routhier has been working on a solid group of prospects looking at coming to Goshen for volleyball, including a verbal agreement with Stacy Wyse, an All-State setter from Archbold, Ohio.  The team will be without Ali Hawkins, Lindsey Nofziger, Gina Richard and Ashley Janssen, who all graduate this year.  “I really am excited about next season and the great potential we have,” exclaimed Routhier.

Daniel Butler jukes around an opponent in the Leafs' recent contest against Holy Cross. Photo provided by Sports Information Department.

The men’s basketball team traveled to Canton, Ohio this weekend to play #6 NAIA-ranked Walsh College and Malone University. This weekend’s game was more than another game for Senior Errick McCollum and Nate West Jr. The two seniors, who grew up and played basketball in Canton, finally get a chance to play back home. When asked about the trip to Canton, Errick McCollum said,  “It was fun to go back home and get a chance to play in front of friends and family.”

Their first opponent on Friday was Walsh College who is nationally ranked. The Goshen team was able to shock the #7 team in the nation, Grand View, this past weekend, as they looked to do the same to Walsh.

The game was close throughout the night with 11 lead changes and score tied 10 times. Both teams were evenly matched but Walsh College was able to dominate in the paint scoring 34 points to Goshen’s 18, although Goshen was able to take advantage off turnovers more effectively scoring 31 point due to turnovers compared to Walsh’s 23.

At the end of the first period Goshen was trailing by 6 points. In the second period of the game Goshen got back in the game forcing Walsh College in to two overtime periods. During the second overtime Goshen’s top scorer, Senior Errick McCollum fouled out as Goshen lost 100 to 105.

After nearly upsetting Walsh College the men’s team followed up their Friday night performance Saturday evening playing against Malone University and pulling out a win from behind 72-70. At the end of the first period Goshen found themselves trailing to Malone 36-27. When the leafs came out of the locker room they were able to find some energy to go on two streaks going 7-0 to get back within 11 points and 17-2 to take their first lead of the period and never looked back.

Errick McCollum and Daniel Butler led the teams with 21 and 20 points respectively. This win puts the Leafs back on the winning side with a 3-2 record. The Leafs will look to add to their win Column as they play Hanover and Denison College in the Sodexo Classic at Hanover. Friday November 21 they face off Hanover at 7:30pm and Saturday November 22, they play Denison at 3pm.

Cassie Grieves (left) blocks out an opponent in the Maple Leafs' recent contest against Trinity. Photo by Martin Brubaker.

Women’s basketball team looked to bounce back from the weekend losses to #24 NAIA ranked Cardinal Stritch and a very good Ohio Dominican side these past Friday and Saturday nights.

Trinity College came in with a 0-5 record before playing the Leafs and left with another loss as the Leafs took charge of the game early on, never giving Trinity a chance to come back. Goshen College Women’s team dominated Trinity Christian as Cassie Grieves, a junior, and Lindsay Gangloff, a senior, scored 14 points with Erica Yost, a junior, adding another 13 points to give the Leafs a 69-52 win this past Tuesday night.

At the end of the game Heather Hahn, a senior forward, said, “Our team definitely showed some of our potential. Now we just need to put our small strides together to play a complete game.”

The Leafs came out firing, making 16 of 33 field goals and 3 out of 5 three pointers as they built a 37-18 lead at the end of the first half. The second period went much the same with the Leafs still in control of the game, but Trinity Christian was able to take advantage of the Leafs and hit 10 of 35 Field Goals to close the gap.

As the game was coming to a close, Goshen was able to maintain a 17-point lead and close out the game to give them a 2-3 record. The Lady Leafs will be traveling to Elgin, Illinois to participate in Judson University Tournament on November 20 and 21.

Linda Kaminskis, GC’s athletic trainer, works with injured athletes to keep Leafs sports teams at the top of their game. Photo by Martin Brubaker.

Around four in the afternoon Monday through Friday you will usually find the training room full of athletes preparing for practices, whether that means getting their ankle taped, heating, physical therapy or something like that. With 256 athletes coming in and out of the training room throughout the year, Linda Kaminskis is always there doing everything possible to help Goshen athletes be successful in their sport.

In the process of becoming the Goshen College athletic trainer, Kaminskis got the chance to be an athletic trainer in various events that include the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship, Indiana State games, Pan American games, 1991 World Gymnastic championship, State Softball All-Star game and many more.

Kaminskis sees her involvement in the various events as a learning experience that brought her more knowledge in her profession and the latest research and technology within the field of sports medicine. Kaminskis joined Goshen College after 33 years of teaching anatomy, health and physical education at Northridge High School. She is a graduate of Butler University, and she is a certified athletic trainer who was selected as an Indiana Athletic Trainer of the Year in the high school division.

While at Northridge, Kaminskis was happy teaching and being the school athletic trainer, but as the years passed, she realized the highlight of her days would be working with the athletes. When there was an opening at Goshen College for an athletic trainer, one of her former student athletic trainer assistants called to inform her that the trainer at the College was leaving and asked if she would consider taking the job. She was content being at Northridge, but this allowed her to retire from teaching and become a full time athletic trainer.

“Being an athletic trainer is very much like being [in] detective work. Your job is to figure out what happened to the athlete, so you can treat it and make the athlete effective in their endeavors,” Kaminskis said. Although Kaminskis’s role is behind the scenes, it is a critical one in how well Goshen teams do throughout the season as teams face injuries and fatigue.

Peni Acayo, one of Goshen College's star volleyball players, jumps up for a spike in Tuesday's game against Bethel. Goshen defeated Bethel, securing the Leafs' spot in the MCC Semifinals. Photo by Martin Brubaker.

The regular season wrapped up last Wednesday evening for the Goshen Volleyball team where they were unable to pull off the upset against #16 ranked Taylor University, falling in four sets.

First-year head coach Jim Routhier thinks the team will take pleasure from some smaller victories.  The Leafs were able to win one set during the match. Taylor dropped just five sets during all of conference play this season, going undefeated. “There is a reason they are ranked No. 16 in the country,” he said. “They are very big and talented.  We played very well at times, but you have to be more consistent when you play a team as strong at Taylor.”

The Maple Leafs went 15-15 during the regular season and 4-4 during conference play, good enough to earn them the No. 3 seed in the Mid-Central Conference tournament.

The Maple Leafs beat Bethel College here at home on Tuesday evening in the MCC Quarterfinal game to earn the volleyball team’s third MCC Semifinal appearance in program history.  The victory also meant that Goshen remained a perfect 8-0 in matches played at home.

Goshen was 2-1 against the Pilots during the regular season, but the team was unable to earn a victory against Bethel College during conference play.

Goshen came into the tournament as the No. 3 seed and won the first set comfortably by a score of 25-18 before dropping the second set 22-25.  The Leafs dominated their No. 6 seed opponent once again in the third set 25-17 and took the fourth and final set 25-23 to earn a trip to Indianapolis this Thursday to face off against Marian University.  The game is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.

Errick McCollum, one of Goshen Basketball's star players, jukes around an opponent in one of last season's games. Men's basketball had their first game Tuesday. Photo provided by Sports Information Department.

The men’s basketball team opened their season on Tuesday night at Indiana University in South Bend.  The Maple Leafs started the scoring with an impressive alley-oop from Kyle Davis, a first year, to Daniel Butler, a junior.  The first two quarters of action were back and forth until IUSB ended the second quarter with a 9-1 scoring run to lead at the half 38-31.

The Leafs struggled as IUSB shot 78% from the field in the second half and nearly 56% overall.  Goshen forced IUSB to commit 23 turnovers but failed to take advantage as the Maple Leafs shot a disappointing 38% from the field.

“I was extremely disappointed with our defensive intensity tonight,” said coach Gary Chupp following the loss.  “For us to be good, we need to be able to lock down on the perimeter, and tonight our communication and rotations were not there. Give IUSB credit, they shot the ball extremely well and made us pay for our defensive mistakes.”

The Maple Leafs at one point fought and cut the deficit to just one point, but they could not do better than that as the IUSB Titans went on to win the game 80-70.

“As bad as we were defensively, we still had multiple opportunities late to get back in it but couldn’t get that key defensive stop when we needed it,” noted Chupp.  “The positive is this was our first game, and it won’t be hard to see in our film session tomorrow where the breakdowns were defensively.  We will learn from it.”

Senior Errick McCollum had a game high 21 points, including a 3-pointer late in the game that made McCollum just the second Maple Leaf to score more than 2,000 points.  Eric Walsh was the first, and finished his career with 2,277 points.

“Errick is a phenomenal player,” said Chupp.  “We obviously rely on him a lot and he is as good as there is in this league.  He can hurt you in so many different ways.”

Goshen will host the Maple City Hoopfest starting on Friday and will play Holy Cross College that day at 8:00 p.m.

Greg Thiessen, right, blazes by a Spring Arbor player in a conference game, Saturday. Photo provided by Sports Information Department.

This past weekend, the Goshen faithful came out in large numbers to support the men’s soccer team as it played the first round of the MCC tournament. The last time the two teams played, Goshen came out with a win from a very physical game. This time around was similar as both teams were very physical, but Goshen was able to pull out a 3 to 2 win with goals coming from Greg Thiessen, Juan Diaz De Leon and Daniel Martin.

The first goal came within the first six minutes of the game from a quick give-and-go combination between Thiessen and Nick Good with Thiessen driving a well-placed shot from the top of the box to give Goshen the lead. After that goal, the game became much more physical and intense as both sides moved the ball and tried to create scoring opportunities. The rest of the half ended with no more goals being scored, but both keepers were tested a couple of times.

Second half started the same way the first one ended: very physical. Twenty minutes into the half, Goshen went on the offensive with Thiessen coming up the field and Spring Arbor playing a high-pressure defense. Senior Juan Diaz De Leon was left by himself to break away unguarded from Thiessen’s pass. De Leon was able to beat the keeper and put away the second goal of the night as the crowd went wild and began chanting De Leon’s name.

With the game almost coming to a close, Daniel Martin ran the same route De Leon had run and received a very nicely placed ball from Thiessen to give Goshen a 3 goal lead and end Spring Arbor’s chances of continuing in the MCC playoffs. With five minutes left in the game, Spring Arbor was able to squeeze in a goal that caught everyone off guard. In the closing minutes, the physical and intense game almost broke out into a brawl as a Spring Arbor player dragged Connor Histand out of bounds.

The player wouldn’t let go of Histand as his teammates from the bench rushed over to pull him away from the player. Both benches began swarming around both players, and the tension was high. Tim Demant and Coach Thavisak Mounsithiraj, along with Assistant Coaches Tony Janzen and James Graber, broke up the situation before things could get worse.  As the game wrapped up and both teams shook hands and went their separate ways, Goshen celebrated as their season continues and their playoff dream lives on.

The Maple Leafs had a considerable number of opportunities during the first half, but Wildcat keeper Spenser Lang made seven saves to keep the score scoreless at halftime.  “In the first half, I thought we did a great job maintaining possession and creating some chances,” coach Tavi Mounsithiraj said.  “In part because of that, IWU was very dangerous on the counter-attacking, creating some arching crosses and heading opportunities, but we managed to keep them off the board.”

The second half offered a packed crowd and more of the same, with both teams attacking and forcing the defense to make plays.  Both keepers were equal to the task as regulation ended with the scoreless tie intact.  The first overtime period gave way to the second overtime period, and fatigue allowed for several scoring opportunities on both ends with Goshen keeper Ryan Troyer making a great save to keep the Leafs in the game.

Finally, in the 105^th minute of play, Juan Diaz de Leon, a senior, made a run down the far side of the field before crossing the ball into the box, where it found the left foot of sophomore Connor Histand, who put it in the back of the net from short range to give Goshen the 1-0 victory.  It was Histand’s first career goal.  The victory clinched the No. 2 seed for Goshen in the upcoming MCC Tournament.

Wednesday’s game also marked Senior Night, honoring the 12 seniors on the Maple Leaf’s roster.  Nine seniors started the game.  During the 12 seniors’ time at Goshen, the Maple Leafs have accumulated an overall record of 62-27-9.  Wednesday night’s game marked the first time this year’s seniors have defeated Indiana Wesleyan University in their careers.

“Overall, it was a great result for the team, we all contributed to the win, and we thank you fans for all the support to our seniors Luke (Woodworth), Kyle (Stiffney), Nick (Good), Scott (Wilkinson), Reuben (Stoltzfus), Jordan (Delp), John (Tamrat), Juan (Diaz De Leon), David (Shenk), Mark (Hershberger), Alex (Caskey), and Jake (Miller).  What an awesome job all of you have done in the last four years,” Mounsithiraj concluded.

Goshen will host Spring Arbor University in the Quarterfinals of the MCC Tournament this Saturday, Oct. 31 at 7:00 p.m.

Huge dunks and choreographed dances were just part of the Purple and White celebration introducing this years GC basketball teams. Photo by Brian Steiner.

Men’s and Women’s basketball team showcase their talent at Purple and White Night.

The second annual purple and white night showcased both Men’s and Women’s team. The night offered free pizza, raffle tickets for prizes like bowling, Buffalo Wild Wings, Shirts and many more. Of course the main prize of the night was the $10,000 shot from the three quarter mark of the court. Like last year the shot did not fall in to the basket.

The night didn’t end there. The main events of the night included an introduction of both teams through choreographed dance by the women’s team and a dance off/drama scene by the men’s team. Then came the women’s three-point contest. Rebecca Staveteig beat Rachel Allen, making 20 three pointers in a time of 1:30 seconds.

Next the men’s dunk contest got the crowd up on their feet and screaming with their creativity in dunks as well as costumes. Nate Manning had two costumes for both of his dunks, the more memorable one being the Batman but was unable to reach the championship round. Carl Steen and Daniel Butler II were the two finalists in the championship round.

The contest ended with the defending champ from last year Carl Steen coming out on top once again, with a ridiculous dunk. Octavio Parral bounced the basketball off the indoor track wall, which then bounced on to the court where Carl was there to put it down with a bang!

Both men’s and women’s teams put up a good showing not only at the purple and white night but also in their scrimmages against Hesston College from Kansas beating by double digits. When asked about the upcoming season, Senior Errick McCollum said he “expects his team to make a national appearance and the first years to get in to rhythm of things quickly and contribute a lot during the season.” Both the Men and Women teams have depth in their line up allowing them to be more versatile and threat in the MCC conference.

The Men’s team will kick off their season on Nov. 3^rd at Indiana University South Bend, with their first home opener on Nov.  6^th when they host the Maple City Hoopfest. The women’s team will also start their season away versus Indiana University South Bend and have their home opener on Nov. 11^th against Indiana Tech.

Heather Zimmerman seeks control of the ball in the Women's soccer match against Cornerstone. Photo by Martin Brubaker.

The Lady Leafs lost to visiting Cornerstone Golden Eagles 2 to 0, extending their losing streak to four games.

Within the first ten minutes of the game, the Eagles took advantage of a loose ball around the 30-yard line that was recovered by #12 forward Jen Kuipers who was able to break away from oncoming defenders and put the ball in the side netting to make it 1 to 0.

Goshen looked to answer back in the last 18 minutes of the half, with some good movement coming from the central midfield. Nora Miller received the ball from midfield and dribbled down to the corner and crossed it at the top of the box finding Tahnee Delp, who took a shot that barely missed the top cross bar.

During the half-time both teams regrouped and shouted intensely in their huddles. As the second half began, the Golden Eagles came out with heightened ambition and capitalized once again, making the score 2 to 0 within the first five minutes of the half. The Eagles were able to recover another loose ball in the corner on Goshen’s side. Midfielder Ashley Morrow (#4) crossed the ball into the goalie box, where it was recovered by forward Riley Steen (#20) who was able to hold off three Goshen defenders before turning to face the goal and driving the ball into the side netting.

Three minutes after the second goal was scored, the Eagles looked to score once again on a missed cue by Goshen’s defense resulting in a breakaway. As the Eagles’ forward was heading toward the goal with a Goshen defender behind her, goalie Lyn Weaver came out and effectively prevented another goal from going in.

At the end of the game, first year defender Erin Maddux said, “The game went fairly well; we just had problems creating opportunity and finishing…I am looking forward to rebound from this lose as we prepare to play Marion on Saturday.” The Lady Leafs will play at Marion this Saturday at 5pm as they look to recover from their losing streak and get a conference win.

Hannah Groff, the only senior on the roster, played her final collegiate match at the MCC Tournament. Groff fell in both her singles and doubles matches, facing #1 seeds in both matches. The Leafs did not manage to win any of their quarterfinal matches and finished the tournament in a four-way tie for sixth place with Bethel College, Spring Arbor University and University of Saint Francis.

The women completed the regular season with a four-match win streak and finished with an overall record of 4-8 in head coach Doug Gossman’s first year on the job.

The men also struggled in the tournament, finishing in seventh place out of eight with four team points. Benjamin Basnet, a sophomore, easily won his singles quarterfinal and semifinal matches before finally falling to the top-seed in the championship match. Alejandro Davalos, the third-seeded freshman, won his quarterfinal singles match in three sets. Davalos then joined forces with Chanuk Algama, a junior, for the doubles quarterfinals, and they were victorious in an enormous upset, beating the #1 seed pairing from Indiana Wesleyan. The men finished the season with an overall record of 5-7.

All Mid-Central College Conference selections were also voted on at the tournament this weekend, and Aaron Sutter, a senior, and Rachel Lanctot, a junior, earned their first ever all conference selections. Sutter and Lanctot are the top singles players for the Maple Leafs.

Photo provided by Sports Information Department.

The Goshen men’s soccer team has been on a scoring frenzy recently.  In fact, the Maple Leafs had scored 11 goals in their previous three games leading into Saturday’s game as the Leafs looked to extend their winning streak to four against the University of Saint Francis.

The Maple Leafs started the first half slowly, but Luke Woodworth finally found the back of the net after receiving a pass from Nick Good with three minutes left in the first half of the play.  “Saint Francis was getting several chances and was very dangerous when they had possession, and we could have easily been down 1-nil.  For us to score the goal with just three minutes left in the first half and the goal was a project of two really good players that have been a big part of our success the last four seasons,” coach Tavi Mounsithiraj said.

The Maple Leafs quickly picked up where they left off coming into the second half.  “With the one goal lead and having some momentum, I told the boys that we need to stay focused and keep possession,” coach Tavi Mounsithiraj explained.  “We did a good job of that.”

Just two minutes into the second half, sophomore Greg Thiessen ran down a punt from goalkeeper Ryan Troyer and touched it past the Saint Francis goalkeeper to make the score 2-0.  Six minutes later, Thiessen scored again off a cross from Connor Histand.  Thiessen has now scored four goals in the last five games.

Sophomore Daniel Martin had the last goal of the game, scoring on a pass from Nick Good and making the final score 4-0.  Good’s second assist of the game tied him for third most assists in the nation with eight assists this season.

The Maple leafs are now 8-5-1 and 3-1 in the MCC this season.

Coaches who recruit more student athletes now receive more funding for scholarships. The new model took effect in September and greatly contributed to Goshen’s highest enrollment in 27 years (with 237 incoming students), according to Tim Demant, Goshen’s athletic director. This year, 39 percent of Goshen’s athletes are first-year or transfer students.

The athletic department proposed the new model in December of 2008. The model is based on the fact that more students bring more money to the school. Therefore, coaches who bring more students are awarded a larger portion of that incoming money to provide scholarships for the athletes. Teams with larger rosters get a bigger budget, but smaller teams do not lose money. There is a base amount given to each team.

“Roster sizes that we use for base scholarship amounts vary per sport,” Demant explained. “Tennis is 10, golf 8, basketball and volleyball 12, Softball 16, Baseball 26, Soccer 20, Cross-country 15.  Each additional roster spot after that contributes an extra per-person scholarship amount.”

The new scholarship model benefits everyone involved; the school gets more money and students; the teams are encouraged to have more players; and the athletes receive more scholarship money.

“It’s a win-win situation for everyone,” said Demant, though emphasizing that the new model is especially beneficial for the athletic department. There is currently a total of 292 student athletes attending Goshen College this year, a major increase from last year, when the college had 230 athletes. He also credited the new model for the large incoming class saying: “Record enrollment was largely due to coaches increasing their rosters.”

Although there is more money to support student athletes, the average amount of financial aid for them is nearly the same as last year. The large incoming class provided more tuition income, but the amount of aid increased proportionately to the amount of people. This simply means that more students were able to receive financial aid.

Because of the positive results, Goshen College will continue to use the new scholarship model for athletes in the coming years.

Brianne Mault, a forward, controlls the ball in a recent contest against the St. Francis cougars. The Leafs lost 3-nil. Photo by Martin Burbaker.

Women’s Soccer kicked off their conference play Tuesday at 7pm against MCC opponent Saint Francis Cougars in a very competitive game that concluded with the Cougars pulling out a 3 to 0 win over the Maple Leafs.

The Cougars have come off of a pretty tough pre-season schedule and are looking to break their six game losing streak. While Goshen has already won more games, they have scored as many goals as the previous year and are coming on a 3 game winning streak.

The first half started with Goshen controlling the ball and moving it around very well. There weren’t too many opportunities for either side until the 15^th minute of the first half. A Cougar midfielder seized the ball from the midfield and dribbled toward the Goshen goal.

Twenty yards away from the goal, the center midfielder passed the ball to #3 Hillary Powers on the right side, who took a couple of touches before placing a perfect ball to #4 Kat Luginbuhl, who was all alone on the left side of the goal, making it a 1 to 0.

Although the goal was a shocker, the Maple Leafs wasted no time in responding. With eight minutes left, Goshen was awarded a free kick 30 yards out. The free kick was taken by freshman Erin Maddux; the ball soared over the Cougars’ defense, finding Chelsea Graber, who hit it wide right of the keeper and the goal.

In the last five minutes of the first half, the Cougars were able to take advantage of another loose ball given away by the Maple Leafs. Mellissa Ellisen, #11 for the Cougars, took the ball down the sideline–using her speed, she raced towards the corner until she spotted her teammate #8 Angie Carusone, who was also left uncovered, giving her an easy goal to put the Cougars up 2 to 0 heading in to the second half.

The second half of the game started a little shaky for both sides with players overpowering their passes and missing cues. As things settled down, both teams were evenly matched, holding possession well and creating multiple opportunities for their respective sides. The Cougars were able to capitalize once again with 25 minutes left in the game.

There was a scramble for the ball at Goshen’s 18-yard box, resulting in a Cougars free kick. #17 Jennifer Snyder prepared to take the kick, the ball hung in the air as it made its way to the goal. Freshman goalkeeper Lynn Weaver jumped to try and punch the ball out, but the ball took a bad deflection as it landed in the back of the net, giving the Cougars the final goal of the night.

Junior Olivia De Cruz said, “I definitely believe that we had the ability to win this game, but they seemed to have wanted it more than us…once they scored the first goal they got to the ball a lot faster than us,” but she added with optimism, “I’m also very excited about the upcoming games, because I feel this year will be a good one.”

“After the first goal, we lowered our guard against the Cougars, which is a dangerous thing to do against a very competitive side like them,” head coach of the Maple Leafs Thavisith Mounsithiraj remarked as the game to a close. “Even though this is a conference loss, I was pleased with how the team played…we just can’t afford to make easy mistakes against quality teams.”

Next up for the Leafs will be a match against conference rivals Bethel College. The game will take place this Friday at 7pm, at Bethel.

Three Goshen players dive for the ball in a match against Grace College that ended in victory for GC this past Tuesday. Photo provided by Sports Information Dept.

Entering Tuesday’s match against Grace College, the Goshen College volleyball team had been struggling to find a win.  In fact, the Maple Leafs had lost their six previous matches after losing multiple players to injuries.  However, the Maple Leafs finally got everything to click on Tuesday evening at home against the Lancers.

The Maple Leafs took 8 of 11 points after being down 16-15 to win the first set 25-21.  The Lancers never got closer than that the rest of the evening as Goshen took control and easily won the final two sets 25-20 and 25-20.  “It was a big win for us as we really needed it,” first-year head coach Jim Routhier said.  “Tonight’s match was the best team effort we have had.”

With Lindsey Nofziger and Indy Miller sidelined due to injury and illness, the Leafs looked to the bench for some much needed help.  They were not disappointed.  “One young lady, Alicia Swartzentruber, stepped in on defense and did an awesome job,” Routhier said.  “It was her first full match, and she rose to the occasion.”

Senior Alli Hawkins led the Maple Leaf offense as the only setter, and she ended with a match-high of 29 assists.  Senior Ashley Janssen and junior Peni Acayo each finished with 11 kills.

In the end, though, it was the defense that kept Goshen in control.  The backline racked up 44 digs with junior Kelsey Herschberger leading the way, registering 13 digs.  The team also had a combined 11 blocks.  “Kelsey played her best game of the year,” Routhier noted.  “Our blocking with Peni, Ashley, Brittany (Herschberger), and Cassie (Greives) really stopped their big attackers.”

The Maple Leafs are now 8-10 overall and 2-1 in the MCC.  The next play is Friday night at Davenport, and the team will host Marygrove College this Saturday morning at 10 am.