MOUNT VERNON and BLUFFTON, Ohio — The Buckeye state was not kind to the Goshen College volleyball team this weekend as the Maple Leafs dropped a pair of matches, losing in four sets to Mount Vernon Nazarene University on Friday night and then falling in a three-set contest at Bluffton University on Saturday.

The Maple Leafs won the first set of their sojourn, hitting a season-best .412 in taking the opening stanza Friday night in Mount Vernon by a 25-17 margin. But the hosts turned the tables, winning the next three sets 25-11, 25-19, 28-26 to win the match.

"We have shown time and again that we are good enough to play with anyone, but there's a difference between showing that and doing it for the entire match," said Goshen head coach Jim Routhier. "Quite simply, there is a reason MVNU is 19-0. They can sustain the focus to play like that for a full match while we struggle with consistency and finishing games."

Trailing two sets to one, Goshen led 24-22 in the fourth stanza with two points to level the match and necessitate a deciding fifth set. But Mount Vernon's Grace Troyer fired home a kill for a side-out, then another to level the set, and the Cougars would go on to win.

Goshen outblocked the unbeaten hosts 13-8, with Natalie Hubby posting seven stuffs: Lexa Magnuson and Meghan Gerke had four apiece. Magnuson was the only Maple Leaf with double-figure kills (12): Whitney Peterson and Hallie Vanitvelt had nine apiece.

"Both middles (Magnuson and Hubby) did well to keep the Cougars out of their offense," Routhier said. "Angela Dedering had 19 digs and was able to play some defense with her serving as well."

After spending the night in Ohio, Goshen traveled to Bluffton University on Saturday afternoon. Goshen and Bluffton share a common Mennonite heritage and purple-and-white color scheme: in the third set, they enjoyed a competitive volleyball match as well before the Beavers prevailed 25-16, 25-21, 28-26.

"Bluffton is a good team with a lot of offensive power," said Routhier. "We had difficulty blocking them until the third set, when we went toe-to-toe, but again could not get that last point."

Peterson matched her jersey number with 14 kills to lead the Maple Leafs, one short of the match high set by Bluffton's Jenny Brown.

"Whitney really kept us in that match with a .344 hitting percentage," said Routhier. "Natalie Hubby blocked well in the third, and also had a couple big attacks to get us back into the match.

Bluffton hit .304 as a team, posting at least 15 kills in each set. Every Goshen player who saw the floor had at least three digs, but none had more than seven. Lisa Rodriguez led the team with 20 assists and Hubby finished with four blocks.

Goshen's record falls to 9-10 on the season and 3-8 in Crossroads League action. The Maple Leafs play a conference match Wednesday night at Grace before returning to non-league play over the weekend: first serve at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center in Winona Lake is set for 7 p.m.