The Goshen College women’s volleyball team started off hot, but quickly became overmatched en route to a three set 25-23, 25-10, 25-17 loss to Mount Vernon Nazarene this past Friday evening in Crossroads League action at Ariel Arena in Mount Vernon, Ohio.
The Leafs were on attack early as they jumped to an 11-7 lead in the opening set. The tide quickly turned against the Leafs, however, as the Cougars went on a 5-0 run and never surrendered the lead the rest of the set.The second and third sets proved to be much of the same as the NAIA nationally-ranked Cougars (20-2, 9-1) ran away with a decisive victory. Mount Vernon out-played the Leafs in every category as they used a mixture of offense and defense.
On offense, the Cougars totaled 47 kills to Goshen’s 21, and a 0.333 hitting percentage on 111 attack attempts to the Leafs’ 0.152 hitting percentage on just 66 attempts. On defense, the Cougars also posted 61 digs and five blocks to the Leafs’ 26 digs and one block.
Christy Swartzendruber, junior, led the Goshen attack with eight kills on the evening followed by six kills from Darienne Maust, first-year. Defensively, the Leafs were led by Mackinnon Tracy, sophomore, with eight digs and the team’s only block by Lexa Magnuson, senior.
The Leafs look to avenge their recent three game slide by returning home this week with matches against conference rivals, Grace College and Taylor University. The match against Grace was held on Wednesday evening with the match ending past print deadline. Taylor will visit this Friday at 7 p.m. in Gunden Gymnasium.
