SAINT MARY-OF-THE-WOODS, Ind. - The Goshen men's volleyball team competed in day one of two at the Showdown in the Woods held at the Knoerle Center on Friday. Park-Gilbert (Ariz.) won the first match in five sets (25-22, 20-25, 25-17, 22-25, 15-12) but Goshen swept Simpson (Calif.) in the second match in three sets (27-25, 25-18, 25-15).

Goshen vs Park-Gilbert
An ace from Goshen's Mathis Doladille tied up the first set 20-20 - one of nine aces for the Leafs in the match. The Buccaneers recovered by scoring the next four points to go up 24-20. Goshen scored two to force another set point, but Park-Gilbert won the next point to take the set 25-22. The Leafs led 5-1 in the next set, but Park tied it up 8-8. Goshen didn't let go of their lead a second time, though, and prevailed 25-20. The Leafs led 9-8 in the third set but the Buccaneers scored 17 of the final 25 points to win 25-17 and take a one set lead.

Goshen scored four of the final five points in the fourth set, right after using a timeout. The Leafs won the set 25-22 and held Park to-Gilbert to a -.038 attack percentage after being over .250 in the previous three. In the fifth and final set, the score was 6-6 when the Buccaneers went up 14-10 and had match point. Like the first set, Goshen scored a couple late points to pull within two, but Park scored the next one to win the set 15-12, and ultimately won the match.

Ishmail Bangura had 12 kills and a .429 hitting percentage to go with a pair of aces. Ben Koop had 12 kills and five aces - tied for a career-best. Nash Hubick guided the offense with 36 assists and Andrea Biffi led the defense with 11 digs. Alessandro Olgiati added nine more digs. Both teams had nine aces. Park had a slight edge in assists (48-47) and kills (53-50).

Goshen vs Simpson
Not long after finishing a five-set thriller, Goshen was back to face Simpson - a team playing in their first match of the day. Goshen made quick work in this match, winning their first three-set match since February 8 last season against Mount Vernon Nazarene.

It wasn't a pretty start for the Leafs, however. The Red Hawks led 7-1 out the gate with three points coming from Goshen attack errors. Goshen tied it at 15-15 but later trailed 19-23. The Maple Leafs then went on a 5-0 run to go up 24-23. Simpson forced a third set point, but Goshen eventually came through with a 27-25 win.

Goshen had six attack errors in the first set, but only four in the next two sets combined. Simpson never had a lead in the second set while the Maple Leafs put down 12 kills with just one attack error and a .500 hitting percentage. The only Simpson lead in the third set was at 1-0. GC quickly went up 7-2 and increased the lead to ten by the end of the set.

Goshen's .319 hitting percentage as a team is their best across the seven matches so far this season. The Leafs only had one ace and three blocks, but they led in kills by nine, assists by five and digs by four. Simpson's attack percentage was a mere .087. Ishmail Bangura had another match with double-digit kills, this time posting 11 with a .345 hitting percentage and six digs. Sawyer Frystak had 11 kills and Igor Sapucaia led the efficient offense with 30 assists, averaging ten per set. He also had ten digs to go with Alessandro Olgiati's team-leading 12 digs.

On day two of the Showdown in the Woods on Saturday, Goshen faces Soka University of America at 9:00 am and Rockford University at 11:00 am.