(Box Score) Goshen, IN — When it comes to this year’s Goshen College women’s volleyball team, this much is for certain:
They know how to entertain.
Goshen captured arguably the biggest win in fourth-year head coach Jewel Lehman’s tenure Tuesday night, knocking off Mid-Central Conference rival University of St. Francis for the first time this decade in a 30-19, 27-30, 24-30, 30-23, 15-11 knock down, drag out affair. The win kept Goshen (12-11, 2-4) in mathematical possibility to host a home match in the upcoming MCC Tournament, while the occasion sent seniors Jessica Buller and Stephanie Kennell off in pure fashion: Goshen had last won a “senior night” match back in 2002, and was 1-4 this year in events that went the full five-game distance coming into Tuesday.
With the team’s final two regular-season games on the road, Tuesday’s match provided all the fireworks and storylines one would expect from a Hollywood blockbuster.
“This was a very, very exciting win for our program tonight,” said Lehman, visibly moved after rushing the floor to join her team at the match’s conclusion. “Coming into tonight, I told our team that this was anyone’s ballgame. We knew we could play with St. Francis, but we also knew it would take everyone stepping up and playing good volleyball. That happened tonight, and I’m excited for us. This was a win that we wanted, and the girls went out and played a hard, smart match.”
While Lehman’s pre-game mindset was positive in nature, it flew in the face of recent trends, as Goshen had been blanked in its last four meetings with the Cougars. St. Francis had dealt the Leafs a pair of its four consecutive losses in regular-season home finales, casting an ominous tone — on paper, at least — prior to Tuesday’s action.
That was offset, in part, due to a heartfelt pre-match tribute to Buller and Kennell, as Lehman addressed a swelling Roman Gingerich Center crowd over the public address system immediately before the first serve.
“I have enjoyed working with Jess and Steph so much through the years,” Lehman said. “I am in my fourth year here at Goshen and they have been with me the whole way through. . .they have devoted hours and hours of hard work to this college and to the athletic program. We’ve seen some tough times together and we’ve worked through them, while we have experienced many wonderful successes and made so many good memories during this time as well. I will miss both of them so much, for so many reasons. Thank you both for your valuable contributions to our program and your leadership here.”
As teammates showered the tandem with flowers and balloons, it was apparent that the emotion carried over at the match’s outset. After trading the first 16 points of the stanza, Lehman’s team began to click, turning an 8-8 affair into a 21-10 difference. A St. Francis’ timeout would only stop the bleeding momentarily, as Goshen would maintain no less than a nine-point lead en route to a 30-19 game one win.
“We started off really strong, and it was clear that we wanted to do well for Jess and Steph,” Lehman said. “We were crisp with our passes and made pretty good decisions up front.”
The evening’s second game would feature more of the same, but St. Francis began to show its fortitude. Coming into the Roman Gingerich Center as the MCC’s second-place team, the Cougars began to hit the ball extremely hard, trying to pull away but with little success. Goshen continually thwarted USF mini-runs and stayed within a point’s distance all the way to 26-25, when sophomore Alli Hawkins charted one of her seven kills — via set dump — on the night.
St. Francis would slowly pull away, however, making use of a pair of kills and a tip to finally win by a 30-27 count.
With the match knotted at one game apiece, true Leafs’ faithful began to sweat following game three. Goshen and St. Francis battled back and forth in a game filled with extraordinary volleyball, only to find the score tied at 23-23.
It was then that the longest point of the evening — and perhaps Goshen’s season — would eventually decide the outcome.
With the third game tied at 23 apiece, the teams traded an incredible seven volleys before St. Francis came up with a point-terminating kill. Twice it seemed as if the point would end in USF’s favor, only for the Leafs to chase down seemingly impossible balls to stay alive.
Following the point, the crowd stood and applauded both teams for their effort.
St. Francis had captured the momentum, however.
The Cougars went on to capture the next five points of the stanza in an eventual 30-24 game three win, finishing the game with a 20-5 run that could have — should have —spelled doom for Lehman’s squad.
“We have been working on pressure situations for quite some time now in practice,” Lehman would say later. “We’ve talked about how, as a team, when we feel things slipping away we have begun to play tentative as a reaction. I thought that, tonight, even when things were slipping away, we kept playing hard and with passion. We had the attitude of, ‘If we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down swinging.’ That finally came out in our play tonight.”
With much being made of the team’s recent collapse in tight situations (click here for related article), Lehman’s squad waited until the biggest stage to buck the label. Instead of fizzling and handing St. Francis an easy game four win, Goshen came out with perhaps its finest period of volleyball yet this season, posting an incredible .410 team attack percentage and cruising to a 30-23 win. Goshen would take a 10-3 lead behind a Peni Acayo (freshman) kill and never look back, allowing St. Francis to get no closer than six points the remainder of the way.
“We’ve also talked about how great the game of volleyball is,” Lehman said. “If you drop a game, you get to start over (at zero to zero in the next game). In that fourth game we weren’t tentative and we went after it.”
Even with the team’s inspired play, another major mental obstacle was looming in the fifth game, as the Leafs had only posted one win (out of five tries) in matches that went the distance. Somehow – despite falling behind by an early 5-2 score — Goshen was able to overcome that abstract hurdle, reeling off the next four points to secure a 6-5 lead.
When St. Francis took a narrow 8-7 lead at the court switch point, Goshen responded by taking advantage of a Cougars’ service error and then blocking a USF attack on the following play, slowly working toward an 11-9 lead.
A pair of kills from sophomore Ashley Janssen made the score 14-10, Goshen, and a deftly hit ball from Janssen would end it, caroming off a Cougar defender and spraying off into the distance.
For the first time since the late 1990’s, Goshen had defeated St. Francis.
“We’ve lost so many close games this year, I just believe the girls want to win so badly,” Lehman said. “They are willing to stick with it and try to get over the hump. Tonight we played really tough, and that’s an awfully good sign at this point in the year. Granted, we missed a fair share of serves and made some mistakes, but we’re making those mistakes playing tough instead of playing not to lose.”
Goshen did commit 22 service errors on the night, but was paced by 11 aces — freshman Kelsey Herschberger had four and Acayo three. Sophomore Brittany Herschberger led the team with 19 digs, while sophomore Lindsey Nofziger added nine.
Perhaps most impressive was the team’s depth offensively, as Acayo charted 16 kills, Janssen 13, Kelsey Herschberger 10 and sophomore Gina Richard eight. Sophomore Alli Hawkins collected 46 of the team’s 48 assists on the night, earning deep praise from Lehman afterward.
“If I had to pick a single area, I’d say the way Alli set the match was a big reason for us winning tonight,” Lehman said. “She was very good in her decision making and had St. Francis’ hitters stressed at the net. When you’re running a good offense in volleyball, you’re trying to get one-on-one situations for your hitters. If you’re being deceptive with the ball, your hitters will be going up in one-on-one situations instead of going against two or three defenders. I thought that Alli made really good plays tonight, and that’s where it started.”
Goshen was also credited for 14 assist blocks — Hawkins had two – but most in attendance believed she had something to do with the Leafs’ seven team blocks as well.
“Alli is only 5-5, but she was up at the net making things tough all night,” Lehman said. “As a team, I thought this was one of our better blocking matches, without question.”
Goshen now gets a week to catch its collective breath before traveling to MCC archrival Bethel College next Tuesday in a game with just as many implications as tonight’s. Mathematically speaking, Goshen could finish anywhere from third place to eighth place in the final regular-season MCC standings, all with just two games remaining.
“These last two weeks will be big for us, but I’m excited,” Lehman said. “We are where we’re supposed to be. It’s okay that we’ve lost some close ones early, because now we’re comfortable being in close games. With us having a chance to finish in the middle of the (conference) pack, there’s a good chance we’ll be playing a team very similar in style to ourselves. Anything can happen, and that’s exciting for a young team.”
Goshen will visit Bethel next Tuesday in its next event. Match time is set for 7 p.m. in the Wiekamp Center.
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Seniors Jessica Buller and Stephanie Kennell