Goshen’s volleyball season officially came to an end Tuesday night with a 3-0 loss to Grace College. The loss came in the opening round of the MCC tournament ending a streak that saw the Leafs reach at least the semi-final round the past two seasons.
Coming into the contest, both teams had a win against the other during the regular season. In both matches it was the home team that won. Unfortunately for the Leafs, this would hold true a third time.Game one saw the Lancers take three quick points for a 3-0 lead and never look back. Grace continued to build to their lead on a .367 hitting percentage while stifling the Maple Leaf attack to -.029 as they had more errors (8) than kills (7) on 34 attempts. Grace would eventually win the game 25-13.
Trying to shake off the early loss, the Leafs hoped to take the second game to prevent being in a 2-0 hole. Goshen kept it close in the early goings but Grace still managed to open a 16-12 lead. The Leafs began a comeback which saw them close to within one point thanks to a Hannah Grieser block and a Brittany Herschberger kill. However, the tying point would never come a long rally between the two teams went the way of Grace and they maintained their lead for a 25-23 win.
The third game again saw Grace jump to an early lead that was too much for the Leafs to handle. The Lancers would ride a .364 hitting percentage to an eventual 25-17 win to complete the sweep and advance to the next round.
On the night, the Leafs were only able to tally three blocks, 34 digs, and a hitting percentage of .176 as they racked up 32 kills on 102 attempts.
The loss gave Goshen a final record of 18-15 on the season. Perhaps the biggest loss of the night for Goshen was seeing the final match of seniors Peni Acayo, Herschberger, and Alicia Schwartzentruber who certainly will be missed next season.
