GOSHEN, Ind. — Lucas Sauder led Goshen College with 6 blocks and 4 aces to go with 14 kills Wednesday night in the Maple Leafs' Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference opener against Aquinas College. The GC men's volleyball team won in four sets, 25-21, 24-26, 25-15, 25-15, at Ruth Gunden Gymnasium.
Alexander Rabadzhiev led all players with 15 kills and Ian Fox added 6 blocks to match Sauder for the match high. After coming back to win the first set and squandering a lead in the second, the NAIA no. 13 Maple Leafs cruised through the third and fourth sets, hitting .241 while pushing the Saints into more errors than kills.
Michael Wahl added 35 assists and Brayton Yoder chipped in a match-high 17 digs for Goshen (3-1, 1-0), which received its highest-ever national rating, the fifth-highest on record in school history for any sport, earlier Wednesday morning.
Aquinas (0-2, 0-2) got 13 kills and 2 aces from Julian Armendano along with 8 kills and 2 blocks from Gavin Jonker. The Saints started the season in the NAIA top 10 but fell to "also receiving votes" in Wednesday's poll.
In their first home match with fans this season, the Maple Leafs fell behind 12-6 in the first set after an 8-1 Aquinas run. A Yoder ace helped stanch the bleeding to get the team back within four at 14-10 before Goshen reeled off seven consecutive points on Bennett's serve, including two aces and two winners from the rocket right hand of Elias Baer.
Aquinas came back to tie the set at 17 on a Sean Kelley kill before two Wahl kills capped a 5-2 spurt that put Goshen back in front. Sauder added a block and a kill in the last four rallies to finish the set.
The Saints hit .300 in the second set, posting 14 winners among their 26 points while recording 21 kills combined in the other three periods. The Maple Leafs opened a 6-3 lead, with other high-water marks including 11-7 and 20-16, before Aquinas ripped off its own 8-1 run. Goshen saved the first three set points, including another Sauder kill and a triple block that also included Bennett and Wahl, to tie the set at 24, but Aquinas did not miss on its fourth chance to level the match.
GC came out hot in the third set, winning 11 of the first 15 points to take its largest lead of the match to that point at 11-4, and never trailed again. The hosts went up 15-6 before Aquinas reeled them back to 16-12, but a decisive 9-3 run ended the third set with three blocks in the last four rallies.
The fourth set started just as hot: after splitting the first four points, GC went on an 11-3 run to go up 13-5. From that point, seven of the last 12 points came on Saint errors before Sauder finished the match with a kill. Baer, Wahl and Rabadzhiev all added winners in the run as well.
The Maple Leafs will sit idle this weekend after a scheduled tri-match at Siena Heights University was canceled. The team returns to action on Friday, Feb. 5 at Lourdes University in Ohio with the first serve set for 7 p.m.
