WINONA LAKE, Ind. – Hallie Vanitvelt wrapped up her career with a personal-best 16 kills, making her one of four Goshen College women's volleyball players to post 10 or more Wednesday night in a four-set Crossroads League win over Grace College at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center.
Goshen hit .307 in the match, racking up 61 kills against 11 errors in the 25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 25-16 win. Elizabeth Breckbill added 11 winners while Sydney Cruz and Taylor Eash chipped in 10 apiece: Eash went without an error on 22 attempts. Eash and Breckbill tied for the match lead with 4 blocks.
Marta Bleed and Kelsee Zuidema each recorded 16 kills for the Lancers (19-15, 11-7), who posted 3 more kills than Goshen (64-61) but also 11 more errors. Gabbey Harrington paced Grace with a .571 hitting percentage and Caylie Teel added 13 kills to go with 15 digs.
Goshen's MacKinnon Tracy led the Maple Leafs with 19 digs from her libero spot, making her one of four visitors to post double digits in that category. Naomi Willis had 27 assists and Shelbey Younts 25. Grace had the match leaders in digs, where Gina Novotny recorded 26, and assists, as Harrington posted 52.
Grace had runs of 5 and 4 points in the opening set before Goshen used a 7-1 spurt to claw back within 2 points. Breckbill and Cruz combined on the block that made it 20-all and a Cruz winner gave the Maple Leafs (9-27, 3-15) the lead for good at 22-21.
The Lancers responded with a 4-point run to crack open a second set that was deadlocked at 13. Breckbill posted three kills in a four-point span to turn a 19-16 Lancer lead into a 21-19 Maple Leaf advantage in the third set before winners from Breckbill, Vanitvelt and Haylee Pennington finished off the two-sets-to-one lead.
Goshen trailed exactly once in the fourth set, at 7-6 after a Harrington winner before taking five of the next seven points. A four-point run that included three aces on Meghan Manley's serve extended the Leafs' largest lead of the set and gave the team 9 match points before Breckbill capped the match with a kill.
Up Next: Wednesday night's match concluded Goshen's 2018 season. The Crossroads League is expected to announce its all-conference award winners during the week of November 12.
