HUNTINGTON, Ind. — The Goshen College women's volleyball team won its second set of the season but came up short in its quest for a match win Friday, losing to Lewis-Clark State University and St. Ambrose University on the first day of the Forester Invitational at Huntington University's Platt Arena.
Naomi Willis led Goshen with 9 assists, 7 digs and 2 aces in the opener, but the Maple Leafs gave up 42 kills to their own 17 as three Warriors posted 8 or more winners apiece. In the second match, Emily Lynch posted 10 kills and the team nearly doubled its output to 31 kills, but each team added 25 errors.
MATCH 1: Lewis-Clark State def. Goshen 25-18, 25-14, 25-21
The Warriors opened their season on a 6-1 run and, after kills from Madison Coles and Christina Towne, used a 6-0 run to go up 15-7 in the first set. Goshen opened the second set with a 4-0 spurt that included Maddy Beaver winning three straight points with a kill and two blocks, but LCSC answered with 15 of the next 17 rallies to ensconce the momentum firmly within its grasp.
The third set was the match's most competitive, although the red-clad Idaho side opened a 10-5 lead before the teams traded pairs of points. Goshen ran off four consecutive points on Maddy Beaver's serve to get the score back to 18-17 but was never able to tie the score. A service error gave Lewis-Clark State match points, and after one save, Grecia Ung Enriquez put down her match-high 12th kill to wrap up the contest.
Tori Edwards and Carli Berntson each had 8 kills for the Warriors. Jess Ruffing added 19 assists and Hannah Martinez had 12 while Cassidy Nelson's 4 aces outpaced the GC team total. Kenzie Dean led all players with 10 digs.
On the GC side of the ledger, Beaver and Emily Lynch both hit above .400 on 6 and 9 attempts respectively. Beaver and Coles each had 2 blocks.
MATCH 2: St. Ambrose def. Goshen 17-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-19
GC won the first set of its second match for the first time since Oct. 26, 2019, racking up an 11-2 margin of kills to errors in the opening stanza and hitting .474 as they won 25-17. After a 12-11 Bee lead, the Maple Leafs reeled off a 10-2 run that included four kills and two aces to go up 21-14. Lynch, Gwyn Bellamy and Amy Baca also posted winners in the rest of the set.
Unfortunately, the rules of volleyball do not allow you to stockpile points from one set for use in the next, and SAU (2-0) opened the second set with a 6-2 run. After trading a few more points, the Bees stung Goshen with eight of the last 10 points to level the match.
Jill Kavalauskas served out a six-point run, including three aces, that broke open a 14-13 third set in St. Ambrose's favor. The Maple Leafs goaded SAU into a pair of errors to get back within 4 points but could get no closer. Runs of 4 and 8 points allowed the Bees to open a double-digit lead in the fourth set as well.
St. Ambrose hit .175 or better in all four sets, while Goshen made 23 errors against 20 kills in the last three sets.
Kavalauskas and Meredith Siebers each recorded 12 kills and Amber Tomlin made 29 assists to lead St. Ambrose, which pulled off 6 aces to Goshen's 5 but also made 13 errors. Maicee Pierce led all players with 15 digs and Kavalauskas chipped in 13.
Lynch finished with 10 kills for Goshen (0-7) and Bellamy contributed 9. Amhdar led the team with 16 assists. Brenneman led the team with 13 digs; Towne added 10 and five players recorded 6 or more.
Up Next: The Maple Leafs will wrap up the invitational with another pair of matches on Saturday, meeting Mount Mercy University of Iowa at 2 p.m. and Calumet College of St. Joseph from northwestern Indiana at 8. Stay tuned to Twitter throughout the day as the schedule will likely be adjusted due to the lengths of earlier matches.
Forester Invitational – Day 1 Scores
Mount Mercy def. Huntington 25-20, 25-22, 29-27
Lewis-Clark State def. Goshen 25-18, 25-14, 25-21
St. Ambrose def. Mount Mercy 25-19, 25-21, 24-26, 24-26, 15-12
Lewis-Clark State def. Calumet 25-9, 25-13, 25-16
St. Ambrose def. Goshen 17-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-19
Huntington def. Calumet 25-10, 26-24, 25-15
Forester Invitational – Day 2 Schedule
Huntington vs. Lewis-Clark State, 10 a.m.
St. Ambrose vs. Lewis-Clark State, noon
Goshen vs. Mount Mercy, 2 p.m.
Calumet vs. Mount Mercy, 4 p.m.
Huntington vs. St. Ambrose, 6 p.m.
Goshen vs. Calumet, 8 p.m.
