SPRING ARBOR, Mich. — The Goshen College women's volleyball team picked up its first conference win of the season Friday night in a five-set thriller at Spring Arbor University. The Maple Leafs came back from a two-sets-to-one deficit to prevail 25-17, 17-25, 26-28, 25-18, 15-13 at McDonald Athletic Center.

Taylor Eash led all players with 17 kills and 6 blocks for the Maple Leafs (6-14, 1-7) while Jennifer Ritchie racked up 11 digs to go with 11 winners. Haylee Pennington slotted in between with 12 spikes while Olivia Koop and Madison Coles added 6 kills apiece.

Ally Roehr paced Goshen with 31 assists to go with her 20 digs: Tessa Clark contributed 23 digs from the libero spot and Haylee Pennington finished in double figures with 10.

Eash led all players with 3 aces with Clark contributing a pair.

Spring Arbor (4-9, 0-8) picked up 16 kills from the hands of Sydney Ritz, 12 from Sarah Schmid and 11 from Macey Rupp. Paige Porter led the team with 28 digs and Schmid paced the Cougars with 7 blocks. Hope Notter was the leading assist-giver with 34, outpacing Emily Martin's 23.

GC cracked open the first set with a 6-1 start and never trailed, hitting .353 on 14 winners against 2 errors. Spring Arbor then turned things around in the second set, using a 10-2 run to create a 9-point lead and winning by a matching 25-18 score.

After a 9-5 start to the third set, Goshen battled back with seven out of eight points to close within 17-16. A five-point run on Clark's serve put the guests up 24-22, but Spring Arbor came back to tie the set at the first time of asking and prevailed 28-26 in extra points.

Once again, the Cougars got hot early in the fourth stanza, going up 5-2 and then 13-9, but the Maple Leafs turned things around in a big way. After stalling the lead at 4 points to stay within 18-14, a Clark ace sparked an 11-point run to end the set at 25-18 and level the match.

The final set was tied at 10 of the 11 chances from 2-all to 12-all before Goshen's defense forced three straight attack errors to earn match points at 14-12. Spring Arbor saved one on a kill but ended the match on its first serve with a miscue.

Goshen closes out the first half of the conference schedule on Saturday when it welcomes Taylor to Ruth Gunden Gymnasium. First serve is set for 3 p.m.