PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. — Alexander Rabadzhiev led all players with 16 kills in the Goshen College men's volleyball season opener on Thursday night, but the momentum of a fourth-set victory quickly evaporated in the fifth set as the Trolls won 15-9 to claim victory in each team's season opener.

Goshen took the opening set 25-17, Trinity won the next two 25-17 and 25-22, and the Maple Leafs leveled the match with a 25-14 fourth-set win before falling in the deciding set.

Jack Paraha had 10 kills in his first collegiate match and Ian Fox led the Maple Leafs with 7 blocks. Michael Wahl finished with 34 assists on 42 Goshen winners.

The Trolls got 15 kills from Djordje Novakovic, 8 from Jake Ostema and Jon Poortinga, and 7 by Bart van der Mark. Danny Lawrence led all players with 39 assists and Ostema racked up 6 blocks.

Goshen held a 12-9 edge in service aces behind 4 from Rabadzhiev, 3 from Paraha and 2 by Nick Yutzy. Rabadzhiev also led the team with 12 digs, beating out 10 from Elias Baer. Adam Becker led all players with 18 for TCC.

The Trolls used a four-point run to open a 7-4 edge in the first set, but Goshen more than answered with a 10-4 spurt that put the visitors up 19-15 on two Trinity attack errors. The set finished with Goshen on a 16-6 run and holding a 1-0 match lead.

It was Trinity's turn to break open an 8-8 lead in the second stanza, getting 3-0 and 4-0 runs as part of a 15-7 end to the set, which included 8 Novakovic kills and an ace.

Goshen led by as many as four points in the third set before a 4-0 Troll run tied things at 11. Trinity tossed up another four-point spurt to flip a 13-11 deficit into a 15-13 lead, and while Goshen held the Trolls to two points on their own serve the rest of the way, that wasn't enough to win the set.

The Maple Leafs never trailed in the fourth, winning three of the first four rallies and adding the match's longest consecutive run of 7 points later in the set to go up by as many as 14 points at 21-7.

Unfortunately for GC, that script was flipped for most of the final set. After an attack error gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead, Trinity Christian won eight of the next 10 points, with the exceptions being a pair of service errors. Rabadzhiev and Paraha each added kills later in the set, but the Trolls kept their early lead intact and never led by fewer than four points.

Goshen opens its home schedule Saturday night with a scrimmage against Davenport University at 7 p.m. in Gunden Gymnasium. The team's next regular-season match is Wednesday, Jan. 22, against Indiana Tech.