SYLVANIA, Ohio — The Goshen College men's volleyball team won its fourth match in a row on Wednesday night, knocking off fourth-ranked Lourdes University in five sets at the Ebeid Recreation Center for the first top-10 upset in program history.

The Maple Leafs improved to 7-4 overall and 2-1 in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference with the 17-25, 26-24, 23-25, 25-22, 15-13 win.

Alexander Rabadzhiev finished with 19 kills, one off the match high, to go with 10 digs and 5 blocks. Jack Paraha added 10 winners and Ian Fox led all players with 6 blocks, one more than Andy Bennett's 5. Elias Baer and Christian Rodriguez led the Maple Leafs with 11 digs.

Goshen outblocked the Gray Wolves (10-2, 2-1 WHAC) by a 12-4 margin and forced Lourdes into 38 attack errors.

Baer finished with 8 kills and Bennett had 6, while Paraha's 9 digs left him one short of a double-double. Michael Wahl led the team with 40 assists.

Lourdes got 20 kills from Evan Gebert, 18 from Sawyer Schafer and 13 from Ricardo Gehrke, but hit just .170 on 171 attacks. Goshen's hitting percentage was .216 on 148 swings.

The Gray Wolves' Henrique Gehrke led all players with 54 assists: on the same side of the box score, Guga Heidrich had 21 digs, Ricardo Gehrke 19 and Henrique Gehrke 18.

"This was a great win for the program and a big confidence booster," said Maple Leaf head coach Jim Daugherty. "We never panicked and adjusted to their changes. We served well at the right times. Our hitters played smart and challenged the defense all night, hitting aggressively and mixing up their shots. It was exciting and a lot of fun."

Lourdes never trailed in the first set, taking an 8-3 lead and holding on as Goshen closed the gap to 11-10. The second set was tied at every chance from 17 to 20 before Goshen saved set point on a service error and leveled the match with kills by Paraha and Rabadzhiev.

Goshen opened a 4-0 lead in the third set and led by the same margin as late as 20-16. An ace and two Gebert kills brought the hosts level at 21-all: Schafer posted back-to-back winners and fired in an ace for the comeback set win to take a 2-1 lead.

Undaunted, Goshen opened the fourth set by winning 12 of the first 17 rallies. Three Schafer kills brought the Gray Wolves within two points at 21-19, but a service error gave GC set points, and Rabadzhiev converted a kill on the second opportunity to square the match.

The fifth set is shorter than the first four, going only to 15 points, and Lourdes got a quarter of the way there when three GC attack errors ran the score to 4-0.

Apparently, the Maple Leafs still had enough wiggle room: Rabadzhiev kills punctuated half of the next six points as GC rallied to tie the score at 5. The run reached 13-3 after two attack errors, but Lourdes came back to win three straight points and six of seven to get within 14-13.

The Gray Wolves' counterattack came up short on a service error, though, and the deed was done.

The win moves Goshen into a second-place tie with Lourdes and Siena Heights in the WHAC standings: ninth-ranked Aquinas, the league's lone unbeaten team, is the first-place squad.

In their inaugural varsity season one year ago, the Maple Leafs won 8 matches overall and went winless in conference play. Wednesday's win moved them within one victory of that season total with almost 20 matches left in the regular season.

GC returns home to meet Siena Heights on Friday night in a Valentine's Day showdown. First serve is set for 7 p.m. in Gunden Gymnasium.