GOSHEN, Ind. — The Goshen College men's volleyball team is on a five-match winning streak for the second time in program history after a sweep of Cornerstone University on Saturday in a Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference match at Ruth Gunden Gymnasium. The Maple Leafs won 25-21, 25-15, 25-17.
Goshen (10-4, 4-1) trailed in the set after just three of the match's 128 rallies, coming back to level the match on the next point each time. The team hit .250, posting double-digit kills in two of the three sets, and held Cornerstone (0-9, 0-6) to 21 kills and 19 errors. The win moves Goshen into a first-place tie with Indiana Tech in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference.
Alexander Rabadzhiev led the Maple Leafs with 8 kills, 4 aces and 5 digs; all three figures were also match highs. Michael Wahl led all players with 25 assists and Ian Fox added 3 blocks to go along with two apiece from Andy Bennett and Lucas Sauder.
The Golden Eagles, who hit .292 in the opening set and minus-.068 thereafter, got 7 kills from Logan Chagdes and 19 assists from Maximiliano Hernandez. Cade Meza added 4 kills and 4 digs.
The teams alternated the first six points of the match, then tied the score again at 5 before a 6-2 Goshen run with three Rabadzhiev winners broke open the first set. Another three-point spurt made it 18-12 and Bennett and Sauder each had kills to go up 22-18 before CU fought back with a 7-2 run. After three straight Goshen errors made it 24-21, head coach Jim Daugherty called timeout and Cornerstone promptly committed a service error to end the set.
That theme continued into the second set as the teams combined for seven consecutive service errors across the set break. Once they got the ball over the net, between the antennae and in front of the back line, the Maple Leafs ripped off three straight points to go up 6-3.
Cornerstone leveled the set at 7 and got back within one at 12-11 before Goshen took over, winning eight of the next nine rallies on four kills, an ace and a block. Insee Akarapan got in on a block to give the team nine set points and Bennett converted on the first opportunity for a winner to put his team up two sets.
GC took a 5-1 lead in the third before using a 7-point run to go up 13-5 as the Golden Eagles misfired four times. Fox, Akarapan and Joel Plank all had winners later in the set and a second-touch kill from Wahl ended the match.
The Maple Leafs' five-match winning streak matches the one the team was on last March 7 after taking out Judson University in three sets; that team never got a chance to extend its streak to six because COVID-19 shut down the sports world before the next match. On a percentage basis, GC's current 10-4 record is also equal to last year's 15-6 mark.
Goshen continues its four-match homestand Tuesday night when the Maple Leafs meet tenth-ranked Indiana Tech at Ruth Gunden Gymnasium. Each team will enter with a 4-1 conference record: in addition to being tied with each other, the teams may be level with Lourdes University after the Gray Wolves play Siena Heights on Sunday. Regardless of the standings situation, first serve is set for 7 p.m.
