Baseball

After a 10-game losing streak to start their conference campaign, Goshen College baseball recorded their first win in the Crossroads League against the Bethel University Pilots at home with a score of 11-1. After this, the Maple Leafs would lose all four games against the Indiana Wesleyan University Wildcats.

The Leafs then traveled to Winona Lake to take on the Grace College Lancers, where they would split the series. They recorded their first victory of the weekend in the second game, winning 6-3, with runs coming from Chase Smith, Barron Welsh, AJ Carrasquillo, Nathaniel Muriel, Nick Padron and Steven Lopez. Their second victory came in the fourth and final game of the series, with Troy Griffin scoring a home run, backed up by Smith who also recorded a run.

The win against the Lancers would mark the first of back-to-back conference wins, as they beat the Huntington University Foresters in the first of their four game series. Runs from Smith, Carrasquillo, Padron, Chris Godden, Nathan Pinedo and a home run from Fernando Marte gave the Leafs an 8-4 victory. The Foresters were ranked 25th in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics at the time.

Godden is one of the team’s captains. Reflecting on the season, he said, “We started to put up good at bats and worked hard to beat the teams that we did. We have so much potential and we proved that when we beat a ranked Huntington team.”

 

Men’s Basketball

The Leafs men’s basketball team, led by Dwight Gingerich, GC’s athletic director, recorded nine victories, two of which came from in-conference play in back-to-back games. This was the first time since the 2022-23 season that the Leafs recorded a conference victory.

The first of these victories came against the Marian University Knights in the Ruth Gunden Gymnasium. The Maple Leafs held a 6-point lead at halftime. They remained in the lead until two minutes to go, when captain Braden Allen was able to score a layup with 3.5 seconds remaining to give the Leafs a 1-point win. The game also saw the Knights’ head coach Pat Knight, son of legendary collegiate head coach Bob Knight, get ejected from the game with a minute left in the first half. Pat Knight then resigned before Marian’s next game.

The following game saw the Leafs take on the Taylor University Trojans. They didn’t lead the contest until 58 seconds  were left to play in the overtime period, when Allen gave the Leafs a 2-point advantage. They would lose the lead again before Saiveon Williams scored on a goaltend, marking the final basket of the game and giving the Leafs another victory by a single point. The Trojans were ranked 24th in the NAIA at the time of the game.

This was the final victory for the Maple Leafs this season. They recorded losses to nationally ranked opposition, including a 2-point loss to Grace, who reached the quarterfinal stage of the national championship tournament. Allen sees the impact head coach Gingerich has made on the program already. “He didn’t necessarily recruit the whole team, but he had players that bought into him and his system,” he said. “Dwight knows what to do to get the team into the tournament.”

 

Women’s Basketball

With a team consisting of two upperclassmen and six players in their first year at GC, the Leafs women’s basketball team was in a transitional period. The Leafs recorded their only conference victory against the Trojans, on the same night of the men’s team’s victory.

The Leafs raced into a 12-point lead at halftime, outscoring the Trojans by six in both the first and second quarters. Despite getting marginally outscored in the second half, the first half lead was enough to give the Leafs the win on a score of 73-64. Sophomores Ava Egolf and Carrie Hiler each scored 16 points in the contest. Both players saw reduced minutes during their first years at GC, but, in this transitional period for the team, Egolf and Hiler averaged over 20 minutes per game, with Egolf leading the team in scoring at an average of 10.2 points per game.

Captain Lilly Null commended Egolf for her progress this season. She sees Egolf in a similar position to her during her first seasons at GC. “We were very emotional, and we were immature. She definitely matured throughout the whole time, and she definitely stepped up as a player,” Null said.

While she is looking forward to next year, Null believes that it will be another building year. “It depends on who we bring in, how those pieces fit together and then how the leadership on the team decides they want to lead next year,” she said.

 

Track and Field

With a less traditional schedule, track and field does not have a conference campaign. Instead, they attend meets at the National Collegiate Athletic Association, better known as NCAA, and NAIA levels. Their season concludes with a conference meet and national championship.

During the indoor season, the Leafs men placed fifth at the conference meet, their highest finish since 2008. The women finished 10th after the two-day meet. Eight Maple Leafs received All-Crossroads League honors, including Sam Sofolahan and Jaylah Leggett in the 60m and 200m, Liam Shaw in the shot put, Duncan Kogei in the 5000m and the distance medley relay of Matthew Keitany, Max Estep, Bruno Kipsang and Drew Hogan. Hogan placed fourth in the mile at the NAIA National Championship in the mile and the DMR finished 12th.

So far, this outdoor season, the Leafs have only had two meets: one at the Indiana Wesleyan University Polar Bear Classic and the other at the Spring Arbor University Bill Bippes Classic. Leggett and Sofolahan reset the 200m records at the IWU Polar Bear Classic.

Hogan sees the work ethic of his own event group as well as the other event groups. “It’s cool to connect with them and have a little team vibe. You have Jaylah and Sam working hard, they are some of the top sprinters in the conference. We have [Liam] and Caroline on the throws side. Then you got Bailee [Brown] doing all sorts of events. She’s an animal as well,” Hogan said.

Bailee Brown is a heptathlete on the team, competing in seven events across two days. After a year of setbacks, Brown is looking forward to competing in the event at conference for the first time since her first year at GC. “It’s been a lot of work, but I’m really excited to do that and support all the people in the other events,” Brown said. “It’s a lot of breaking down the little things and continuing to show up and work hard at practice every day as well as pushing each other and leaning on your teammates.”

 

Men’s Volleyball

The 2026 season was a transitional year for the Leafs men’s volleyball team with seven first-year players and a new coaching staff. First-year head coach Wyatt Bollinger’s team had a record of 13-17, winning seven games in conference play.

The first of these conference wins came against Defiance College. The Leafs swept the Yellowjackets 28-26, 25-15, 25-14. First-year Gavin Furgerson led the team in kills with eight. Their next win would come against the Rochester Christian University Warriors in straight sets 25-10, 25-15, 25-19, with Fergurson again leading the way in kills. They would then beat the Aquinas University Saints and the Cornerstone University Golden Eagles in five sets. They completed the season by winning three of their final five games against Rochester Christian 3-1, Aquinas 3-0 and Defiance 3-0. They finished seventh in the Wolverine Hoosier Athletic Conference, but only six teams went to the playoff tournament.

Captain Ben Koop commended the impact of the new players on the team so far. “I think they proved themselves to be ready for this level of competition really quickly,” Koop said.

Despite the fact the team didn’t make the tournament, Koop is satisfied with the way in which the team played in the final games. “The way we went out was really invigorating. It showed that, even when we knew we had come up short in some ways, we continued to play hard. Everyone committed to staying focused until the very last set, and that made me really proud,” he said.

 

Softball

With an overall record of 16-26 and 10-18 in conference, GC’s softball team sits eighth out of 10 teams in the Crossroads League.

Their first two wins came through sweeping Grace in the first double-header with scores of 12-2 and 4-3. In a different double-header versus the Mount Vernon University Cougars, the  Leafs pulled out game two with a scoreline of 3-2. They then scored points in the U.S. Highway 20 Cup by sweeping Bethel at home. This month, they swept the Taylor Trojans 10-9 and 3-2 before taking another game off Grace. Their most recent victories came through an away sweep versus Bethel.

If the Leafs remain in eighth, they will play a ‘play-in’ game versus the seventh place team, currently the MVNU Cougars. They are set to play the Cougars on Friday at the Goshen College Softball Complex.

Ella McLeod is one of the team’s two captains. She described the season as “a mix of growth, challenges and learning experiences.” In the games the Leafs have won, McLeod believes that the team has shown their potential.

McLeod believes that the team can make the conference tournament. “This is achievable if we get consistent, play confidently and compete at a high level in every game,” she said.

 

Tennis

The only teams with winning records on campus, the GC tennis teams are both nationally ranked and poised to make deep post-season runs. The men sit third in the conference, while the women sit in second. The women have won 12 matches so far this season, the highest number of wins since the program’s inception in 1972. Seven of these victories came from in-conference matches.

Both teams have recorded victories over Bethel in the U.S. Highway 20 Cup. The women also swept Taylor, the University of Saint Francis and MVNU. The men’s only sweep came against MVNU. Both teams have one more game left in their schedule against IWU in Marion on Saturday.

The men’s team are missing a portion of their squad due to injury. Bruno Ferrera Alvarez, Filippo Gallo and Denis Stanculov have all been sidelined throughout the season. Because of these injuries, Gallo describes the team as “a bit down right now,” but says the team are taking each game as it comes as they prepare for the Wildcats this weekend.

Blanka Bodo is a member of the women’s team. She commented on the mindset of the team ahead of their final matches. “We are going into big matches with a very positive attitude. We believe we can get great results because we have worked so hard together,” she said. “Going to nationals would be the perfect way to finish this record-breaking season.”