Maple Leafs Inch Closer To Tourney Berth With Win Over MVNU
Swartzendruber fires off 13 kills in four-set win
By Tony Miller
Sports Information Director
Christy Swartzendruber’s 13 winners paced the Goshen College women’s volleyball team Tuesday night as the Maple Leafs came back from a first-set loss to knock off Mount Vernon Nazarene University in a Crossroads League match at Gunden Gymnasium.
The Cougars (17-12, 5-9), who used only two subs in the match, won the opening stanza 25-17 behind four kills from Casey Bunner and four aces on errorless serving. Goshen (11-15, 4-10) would claim the next three sets 25-23, 25-23 and 25-21 to sweep the season series.
The Maple Leafs appeared to seize control with an 8-0 third-set run to go up 11-3, only to watch their guests claim eight of 10 points to pull within 19-18. After a 22-all tie, Sydney Cruz and Darienne Maust finished off the set for GC: each player had a kill and they combined on a block. While the final set featured six lead changes, none came after 5-4, which marked the beginning of a 6-0 Goshen run.
Mount Vernon Nazarene finished with 55 kills to Goshen’s 45, but also made more hitting errors (27-20) and reception errors (9-4). MacKinnon Tracy served five Goshen aces while Maust and Eash led the team with four blocks.
Hallie Vanitvelt racked up 21 assists to lead the Maple Leafs; Ally Roehr added 16 to push her career total into quadruple digits at 1,012. Katelyn Dufur of MVNU led all players with 47, setting up 15 kills by Kristen Osborn and 11 by Alyson Near.
The win pulls the Maple Leafs within a game of MVNU for the eighth and final spot in the Crossroads League tournament; both teams have four matches remaining. The other eight CL schools each play conference matches Wednesday night.
Goshen concludes its non-conference schedule on Friday, hosting Great Lakes Christian at 7 p.m.; the match will be the first in program history between the two schools.