SAINT MARY OF THE WOODS, Ind. - Women's volleyball finished day one of the Showdown in the Woods, hosted by Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, with a 2-0 record and winning six of their seven sets played. Against Georgetown College (Ky.), the Leafs won 24-26, 25-21, 25-16, 25-23. Later in the evening they faced Mount Mary and prevailed 25-22, 25-12, 25-21.

Goshen vs Georgetown
The Tigers won five of the first six points in the match but Goshen came back and ended up taking a lead at 23-19. However, Georgetown ended the set on a 7-1 run to win 26-24. Goshen had nine attack errors in the set compared to just three for Georgetown. The second set was tied 18-18 before the Maple Leafs ended it on a 7-3 run. They used the momentum in a dominant 25-16 third set, where they put up a .214 hitting percentage. There was another 18-18 tie in the fourth set until the Leafs came out on top with a two-point 25-23 victory.

The Leafs had 11 aces in the match, their most in a win since playing five sets against Trinity Christian on August 20, 2024. Sydney Stutsman had a career-high five aces. Brenna Spangler added three, Sami Lard had two and Kelsie Hankins had one. Spangler led the team with ten kills. Four players had ten or more digs - Alaina Wolfe (16), Sami Lard (12), Kassidy Faler (11) and Sydney Stutsman (10). Stutsman had 21 assists, Hankins added 12 and Wolfe contributed five.

Goshen vs Mount Mary
The first set against the Blue Angels from Mount Mary saw a few long runs. Goshen won five points in a row to go up 13-11 but lost the next eight to go down six. Yet, the Maple Leafs then had a 9-0 run of their own to go up 22-19 and did enough in the end to win 25-22. Goshen roared out to a 12-1 lead in the second set, in part due to two aces from Sydney Stutsman and four aces in a row from Sami Lard. They went on to win big by a 25-12 score, needing only six kills since they had ten aces in the set.

Goshen led 16-12 in the third but the Blue Angels took a 19-18 lead. After Goshen head coach Jeff Phillips used a timeout, the Leafs rallied to win seven of the last nine points and took the set 25-21 and the match 3-0.

The Maple Leafs had 16 aces in the match - their most since putting up 20 aces against Great Lakes Christian, their next opponent in the Showdown in the Woods, on October 20, 2017. Lard finished with seven aces, Stutsman with five, and Faler, Hankins, Spangler and Eva Carlson had one each. Carmin Corey led the team in kills with eight and had a .389 hitting percentage. Stutsman had nine assists and Hankins had eight. Wolfe led the way in digs with 11.

Goshen (3-5) takes on Great Lakes Christian on Saturday at 10:00 am and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods at noon.