GOSHEN, Ind. — Goshen College held on for a four-set victory over the University of Saint Francis in women's volleyball action Wednesday night at Gunden Gymnasium.

Whitney Peterson led Goshen with 11 kills and Darienne Maust led the team with five blocks, all of them in the fourth set. The Maple Leafs led by at least six points on some occasion in each stanza in a 25-17, 25-21, 24-26, 25-23 win.

Saint Francis (2-8, 1-1 Crossroads League) opened the match with three straight points before Goshen (5-4, 1-1) roared back to a 16-8 lead. The hosts posted just six kills in the opening stanza, buoyed by a defense that forced 11 attack errors.

Again in the second set, an early 2-0 USF lead became a 6-3 deficit as the Leafs put up four kills in five points from three different players. Saint Francis used an 8-2 run to tie the set at 20 before two Hallie Vanitvelt kills and three Cougar errors ended the threat.

Goshen pulled out to 6-1 and 11-5 edges in the third before again falling back to a 15-15 tie. All told, the set was tied nine times before two straight kills ended it for USF. On Meghan Manley's serve, Goshen won eight straight points to take an 11-2 fourth-set lead and just about held that margin to claim eight match points at 24-16. The Cougars claimed a 7-0 run of their own, however, to close to 24-23.

Maust ended the match on a kill, assisted by Ally Roehr, who completed 35 sets to lead all players. Each of USF's 55 kills was assisted, with 24 coming from Chloe Hubner and 18 from Sam Soltis. Cassidy Rammel had a match-high 12 winners for USF.

Giger made eight kills for GC while Lexa Magnuson had seven. Christy Swartzendruber, Manley and MacKinnon Tracy posted two aces each. Tracy and Roehr led the team with 11 digs each, and while Meghan Manley finished with just one block, it was the lone solo stuff of her team's night.

With the win, Goshen raises its conference record to .500 entering the first back-to-back-match weekend of the Crossroads League slate. The Maple Leafs play at Huntington at 7 p.m. Friday and visit Grace at 3 p.m. Saturday.

More, including comments from Goshen coach Jim Routhier, to come when available.