GOSHEN, Ind. — Alexander Rabadzhiev led all players with 15 kills and Michael Wahl picked up his 2,000th career assist Saturday, but the Goshen College men's volleyball team had its senior day spoiled by NAIA no. 10 Lourdes University in a top-15 showdown of Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference opponents in Ruth Gunden Gymnasium. Lourdes won the match in straight sets, 25-22, 25-21, 25-14.
The Gray Wolves (11-1, 9-1) hit .375 for the match; Goshen nearly kept pace, firing off 10 winners at a .304 clip, in the first set, but committed 14 errors to Lourdes' six in the final two stanzas. Lourdes also threw off GC's potent net game, outblocking the Maple Leafs 9-2.
Jeff Lam of LU tied Rabadzhiev for the match high with 15 kills and led all players with 4 aces. Zach Haube added 6 blocks while Max Petuhov added 4 and Ricardo Gehrke had 3.
Wahl led all players with 9 digs on top of his 25 assists, which ran his career totals to 2,024 overall and 1,812 at GC. Andy Bennett led the Maple Leafs (13-8, 5-5) with two blocks and Brayton Yoder chipped in 3 aces.
Lourdes jumped to a 5-1 lead in the first set before Goshen roared back with a 6-1 run to take a 12-10 lead. The Gray Wolves answered that with a 6-1 run, including four kills and an ace, to go up 17-14 and never let the Maple Leafs back within two points.
The Gray Wolves had 7-2 and 7-1 runs in the second set, the latter of which broke open a 7-7 tie to the tune of 14-8. Goshen put up a pair of 3-point spurts down the stretch but could not close the gap to fewer than three points.
While the teams traded 4 points apiece early in the third set, Lourdes bookended that with 3-0 runs to go up 13-6. The Gray Wolves went up 19-13 and never looked back, winning the last six points of the match to finish the sweep and keep pace with Indiana Tech at the top of the WHAC.
Goshen squandered an opportunity to clinch a spot in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference tournament on Saturday, but the Maple Leafs can still do the trick rather simply with a win over Mount Vernon Nazarene on Tuesday night. First serve is set for 7 p.m. in Ruth Gunden Gymnasium in the team's final home match of the year.
