Lady Lancers blow by Bethel
WINONA LAKE, Ind. – In an impressive offensive performance, Grace’s volleyball team swept Bethel 3-0 on Friday night.
The win keeps the Lady Lancers (12-4, 6-2 Crossroads League) in third place in the league standings, just one game out of first place. Grace faces an important test on Saturday less than 24 hours later. The Lady Lancers host Indiana Wesleyan at 3 p.m. at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center.
On Friday, Grace’s offense proved too much for the Pilots (5-10, 3-5 CL) to handle. Grace had 15 more kills and 12 more assists than Bethel.
Alexa Hill’s 40 assists and 16 digs were both match-high marks, and Caylie Teel also had a double-double with 15 kills and 13 digs, hitting at a .389 percentage. Grace’s team hitting percentage was a sizzling .279 compared to Bethel’s .135.
Grace grabbed control of the first set early on with a massive 8-0 run. Makaela Lochmueller had three straight kills during that spurt, which forced a timeout by Bethel. The Pilots tried to rally but came up short 25-21.
Bethel did its best impersonation of Grace in the second set, scoring seven unanswered points to take an 11-8 lead. But Grace responded with a 6-0 run of its own, never trailing again en route to a 25-20 win.
The third set was Grace’s most dominant. The Lady Lancers quickly jumped out to a 9-3 lead thanks to four early kills from Teel. Teel ended the match 25-19 with a kill on the final play of the evening.
Lochmueller finished with a well-rounded statline of 7 kills, 2 solo blocks and 1 block assist, and Kelsee Zuidema added 10 kills and two block assists.
Marta Bleed tallied eight kills on a .278 percentage, and Gina Novotny (9 digs), Deborah Michalski (8 digs) and Caroline Mayer (7 digs) were all strong in defense.