SPRING ARBOR, Mich. — Haley Biedenbach and Maddy Payne had a great night for the Bethel Pilots (17-14, 7-9) despite the five-set loss to the Spring Arbor Cougars (12-13, 6-10) on the road Wednesday night, 25-19, 27-25, 19-25, 20-25, 13-15.
Biedenbach hit the 2,000 career assists mark and took over the 10th all-time spot in career assists in program history over Lisa Setzler (’01) who had 1,528 and is shy of Sami Leach (’14-16) who ended her career with 2,459. With the milestone, Biedenbach had a double-double performance with 54 assists and 17 digs along with Payne having 19 kills and 15 digs.
A mix of hitting errors (38) and 15 blocks by the Cougars hurt the Pilots despite winning in the kills category 68-57, assists 64-49, and digs 96-93.
The Pilots opened the first set with a massive 12-4 run and hit 20 points quickly at 20-11 before running away with the first 25-19.
The second set was a battle tying nine times to force extra points with Payne and Biedenbach going back-to-back to secure the second 27-25.
Taylor Delp and Payne tied the third at 4-4 and 5-5 respectively to try and gain momentum to complete a sweep but the Cougars battled their way to a 25-19 third set win to keep them alive 2-1.
The fourth set looked similar to the third but maintained no more than a three-point advantage as they forced a fifth set.
With the fate of the match tied at 11-11 two consecutive attack errors put the Pilots behind 12-11 before Gracen Norris tied the match 12-12. With Pilot attack errors and SAU kills the Cougars won the fifth 15-13 and the match 3-2.
The Pilots have two more matches in the regular season with the Saint Francis Cougars at home on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 1 p.m. in the Goodman Gymnasium and the Taylor Trojans in Odle Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. and currently hold the five seed in the Crossroads League Tournament pending how the Pilots and the Spring Arbor Cougars, currently in sixth, finish the regular season.