GOSHEN, Ind. - It took some adjustments, but the Maple Leafs men's volleyball team came back from two sets down to defeat the #13 Saint Xavier Cougars on Wednesday evening as
Hasan Hadzic made his season debut. After losing the first two sets by scores of 25-15, Goshen won the third 25-18, the fourth 25-17, and the fifth 15-7.
The Cougars led 24-12 in the first before Goshen scored a few points to cut the deficit at the end. Similarly, it was 23-12 in the second set before Goshen scored a few late points. Saint Xavier had a hitting percentage of over .350 in the first two sets.
The Maple Leafs had a .056 hitting percentage in the second set, but it skyrocketed to .714 in the third.
A kill by
Ishmail Bangura put Goshen up 4-1, and an ace from
Andy Bennett extended the lead to 10-4, forcing Saint Xavier head coach Tom Ryan to call a timeout. The Cougars pulled within two, but a 5-0 scoring run in the middle of the set gave Goshen an 18-11 lead.
Ishmail Bangura had two kills, followed by two aces from
Hasan Hadzic, causing an SXU timeout. The Leafs scored five of the final six points to win 25-18 and had ten kills with no attack errors in the set.
After Saint Xavier led 2-1 in the fourth set, Goshen punched back with five straight points to go up 6-2. GC went up 15-6 later with four consecutive points and had four straight points to end the set.
Wyatt Bollinger's ace took the score to 25-17.
The Cougars could not get into a groove in the final set. They had five attack errors and a -.167 hitting percentage. An ace by Hadzic put Goshen up 5-2, and the Cougars used a timeout. They scored their next point, but they had to use their second timeout once Goshen was up 9-5. It didn't get any better for the visitors from that point on. Goshen ended the match on an 8-2 scoring run and capped off the match with a kill from
Hasan Hadzic from
Wyatt Bollinger.
Saint Xavier was ranked #13 and displayed an 8-2 record heading into the match with a 4-0 mark in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference. Goshen now has back-to-back wins against teams ranked or receiving votes in the NAIA coaches poll.
In his season debut,
Hasan Hadzic totaled 19 kills and a .324 hitting percentage. Defensively, he provided seven digs, a solo block and three block assists.
Ishmail Bangura had 11 kills, two solo blocks and three block assists.
Wyatt Bollinger guided the offense with 39 assists.
Pablo Sanchez led the team in digs with nine.
While Goshen dominated the blocks category 13-5, Saint Xavier had 16 aces to Goshen's seven. Jan Lopuch had seven of the team's aces and Drew Ehlers had five.
Goshen (4-6, 3-5 WHAC) looks to bring the win streak to three games on Friday evening against #10 Lourdes. The match is set to start at 7:00 pm. Saint Xavier played at Lourdes on Friday and lost in five sets.
