The Women’s Volleyball team fell in their last match of a three-game homestand to a resilient Lancer squad from Grace College.

The Maple Leafs got off to a fast start in the first set as senior Sydney Cruz earned a kill to stretch the lead to 9-4.

The Leafs held the lead until an attack error tied the score up at 21. The final four points were dominated by the home team behind kills from senior Hallie Vanitvelt, sophomore Jennifer Ritchie, and back-to-back aces from sophomore Tessa Clark.

In the second set, strong serving from senior MacKinnon Tracy and two kills from Vanitvelt surged the Maple Leafs to a 4-0 lead. The Lancers wouldn’t regain the lead until a six-point run, courtesy of five Maple Leaf errors, put them on top at 19-22.

The Leafs would regain their composure following a timeout and go on to take the set 28-26 behind four combined kills from the two sophomore middle hitters, Elizabeth Breckbill and Taylor Eash.

However, momentum shifted when the third set came around. The Lancers jumped out to a 4-12 lead, and would not look back for the remainder of the set.

Senior Caylie Teel of Grace proved too much to handle as she tallied six of her 17 kills in the third set as the Lancers rolled to a 16-25 victory.

In the fourth set, the away team picked up right where they left off as back-to-back blocks, put the Lancers on top 2-5. Senior Kelsee Zuidema then stretched the Lancer lead to five following one of her match-high 18 kills.

The Maple Leafs would respond as Cruz put away a nice set from Junior Ally Roehr to cut the lead to two. But the Lancer attack held strong as they would go on to force a fifth set by a score of 18-25.

In a decisive fifth set, Grace looked to be in control after a 3-7 start, but the attack out of the middle from Goshen drew the two teams tie at seven apiece.

The Lancers remained calm as they regained the lead, only to have the Maple Leafs go on another 4-0 run to tie the final set up at 12-12. But in the end, a service ace from the Lancers seized the final set by a score of 12-15.

The Maple Leafs fall to 7-11 on the season and 1-5 in the conference as the Lancers improve to 11-4 and 5-2 in the conference.

A well fought match by the Maple Leafs was paced by a career-high 17 kills from Vanitvelt, followed by 12 from Breckbill, and 10 from Eash. First-year Naomi Willis and sophomore Shelbey Younts combined for 41 total assists while Tracy controlled the back row with 22 digs.