By Tony Miller
Sports Information Director

GOSHEN, Ind. — Local products accounted for more than half of Goshen College's kills on Friday as the Maple Leaf women's volleyball team posted its third-highest hitting percentage of the year in a three-set loss to Marian University at Gunden Gymnasium.

Bethany Christian High School graduate Darienne Maust led GC with 11 winners while freshman Taylor Eash, a Westview alumna, added a career-high nine without an error on 17 swings. That duo combined for 20 kills of the team's 42 as GC hit .252, but Marian came in two points better at .254 in a 25-20, 25-17, 25-22 win.

Marian (22-3, 12-1) claimed the match's first three points before Goshen (10-14, 3-9) reeled off seven of the next eight. The opening set was tied four times out of a possible seven between 11-11 and 17-17. The guests got the last laugh, winning 10 of the last 13 points in a stretch that included four kills and two blocks by Kacee Salyers.

Neither team would match its 16-kill mark from the first stanza in the remaining two sets, although each team would put up 14 kills in a subsequent period. The teams would trade the first dozen points of the second set before a 9-2 Marian run turned Goshen's 10-7 lead into a 16-12 hole. Of the nine points, five came on kills; the only Knight responsible for multiple points was Vanessa Lay thanks to consecutive aces. Goshen countered with three of the next four points, getting two kills from Eash in that span, but back-to-back blocks involving Anne Strevels spurred a 7-2 Knight run to end the set.

The final period went back and forth as much as any, with neither team pulling ahead by more than two points until Marian used a Hannah Trout kill to go up 15-12. Three kills from Hallie Vanitvelt got Goshen back within a point at 17-16 while Eash made it 18-17 two points later. Marian won only two of its seven remaining points, getting the other five on a combination of attack errors, setting errors and a final service miscue.

Salyers led all players with a match-high 12 winners, one of which ended up in a garbage can behind the baseline early in the second set. The Knights finished the match with 43 kills to Goshen's 42. Frannie Stephenson and AlyxaKay Shields turned in nine and seven kills respectively: Marian's three leading attackers combined to hit .300 on 70 attempts. Lay added 13 digs and Julie Hoying 10 for MU, while Strevels had a hand in seven of the team's eight blocks. Hoying's 19 assists were one better than the 18 posted by Goshen's Ally Roehr for the match high.

Vanitvelt turned in seven errorless kills on 15 tries for a .467 clip: the kill and attempt totals were both her most since August 25. Shelbey Younts, who saw action in back-to-back matches for the first time since the week after Labor Day, added 17 assists for her best-ever mark in a three-set match. Freshman Tessa Clark saw action in all three sets and posted five digs, one short of her career high, while MacKinnon Tracy led all players with 25 digs.

Goshen turned in 6 1/2 team blocks, paced by three each from Maust, McQuinn and Meghan Gerke. Maust was the only player on either side with a solo stuff.

Despite the hard-fought loss, Goshen's path to the Crossroads League tournament got harder Friday night as Bethel upset co-league-leader Indiana Wesleyan. The win moved the Pilots from eighth place to seventh, two spots and two games ahead of Goshen. The Maple Leafs sit 1 1/2 games out of the league tournament, trailing Mount Vernon Nazarene by that much with nearly three-fourths of the regular season complete.

Goshen hosts Indiana Wesleyan at 3 p.m. Saturday; fans who bring a canned food item to the GC psychology club's food drive will receive free admission.