GOSHEN, Ind. — The Goshen College men's volleyball team won the longest set in program history but squandered a chance for a top-10 upset Tuesday night when it dropped a Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference match to Indiana Tech in four sets at Ruth Gunden Gymnasium. The NAIA no. 14 Maple Leafs lost 31-33, 25-22, 25-21, 25-15 to the 10th-ranked Warriors.
Alexander Rabadzhiev led Goshen (10-5, 4-2) with 23 kills and 2 aces while Lucas Sauder added 13 winners to go with 7 digs. Brayton Yoder led the team with 12 in the latter category and Andy Bennett had a match-high 5 blocks.
Daynte Stewart led Indiana Tech (9-2, 5-1) with 28 kills, 3 aces and 14 digs, setting the match high in all three categories. Chandler Davis added 55 assists and Chase Christiansen contributed 5 blocks.
As the conference season reached its midpoint for both teams, Indiana Tech stayed level with Lourdes at the top of the conference; Goshen fell into third place, one game behind the top pair.
Tech led throughout the first set, opening 9-5 and 12-8 leads before the Maple Leafs clawed back in on runs served by Nick Yutzy and Wahl respectively. After a 14-all tie, the Warriors used a 5-1 run with three kills to go up 19-15, but promptly gave up a 5-1 run with two kills and two blocks to tie things at 20.
Kills by Sauder and Rabadzhiev sparked a 3-0 Goshen run to give the hosts their first lead of the set at 23-22. GC had the first three set points, two of which were saved by Stewart, before Indiana Tech had four of the next five. Rabadzhiev added kills on two of the last three points as the Maple Leafs turned a 31-30 hole into a set win.
The first set was tied 13 times, including at every opportunity from 22-22 to 31-31. It blew past the longest set in the three-year history of Maple Leaf men's volleyball; the old record was 29-27, set a year ago Monday night in a win at Lawrence Tech. The stanza also lasted 35 minutes. Indiana Tech hit .347 with 24 kills while Goshen was .400 with 19 kills.
The second set was a 25-minute slugfest of its own that ended with the Warriors racking up another 15 kills. Goshen added 9 winners in the set and had 6 team blocks through the first two sets, but had another 7 hitting errors in the second.
Indiana Tech opened a 6-2 lead in the second set, but Goshen came back to tie the score at 10 when Sauder's kill led to a side-out and a 3-point run. Another 5-1 Warrior run restored the four-point lead, and the margin was three points as late as 22-19, but a Fox kill and a Rabadzhiev ace leveled the set at 22.
Raekwon Rogers and Milan each had kills in Indiana Tech's 3-0 run to end that set.
Goshen got two kills from Rabadzhiev and one each from Sauder and Fox in a 5-2 start to the third set before the Warriors came back and won 10 of the next 12 rallies to seize control at 12-7. Goshen nabbed three points to run the score back to 12-10, but another three-point run would ensure that the hosts never got closer than three points again.
After the teams traded two-point salvos early in the fourth, Indiana Tech went on a 7-2 run to go up 14-8 and never looked back. The Warriors hit .545 in the last set and .478 over the last two, forcing Goshen into 11 hitting errors against 24 kills. The Maple Leafs did not register a block in the fourth set.
Goshen continues its four-match homestand on Friday when it starts the second half of its WHAC schedule against Siena Heights University. First serve is set for 7 p.m. in Ruth Gunden Gymnasium.
