WINONA LAKE – The Grace College volleyball team completed a crucial season sweep of Taylor on Wednesday, winning 3-1 at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center. Grace improved to 21-7 on the season, including a 10-2 mark in Crossroads League. The Lady Lancers remain just one game behind Indiana Wesleyan atop the CL standings and moved two games clear of third-place Taylor in the process. Ellie Harp had a standout performance with 44 assists, 15 digs, seven kills, three block assists and two service aces, and Kaitlin Kerrigan recorded a match-high 18 kills. In the opening set, Grace held a dominant 15-8 advantage in kills thanks to six kills from Calah Kruse en route to a 25-20 victory. The Trojans (18-9, 8-4 CL) returned the favor with a 25-20 win in the second set to even the match. The Harp-led offense helped Grace to a come-from-behind 25-22 win in the third set. Harp had 13 assists in the set, seven of which went to Kerrigan. The fourth set went down to the wire with Grace pulling out an emotional 26-24 victory. Harp appropriately ended the match with a kill on the final rally – her third kill of the set. Grace had 16 kills in the set on a .233 percentage. For the match, Grace held Taylor to an attack percentage of .098 while hitting .152 on the offensive side of the net. Calah Kruse notched a double-double with 14 kills and 17 digs, Hannah Clemmons finished with a team-best 18 digs, and Grace Woolsey tallied seven kills and three block assists. The Lady Lancers continue league play with another home match on Friday at 7 p.m. against Huntington. Grace squeezed by the Foresters 3-2 on the road on Sept. 19.
MEN’S SOCCER WINONA LAKE – Grace’s men’s soccer team got back on the winning track with a 3-0 victory over Goshen on Wednesday. The Lancers (7-5-1, 2-3-1 Crossroads League) went ahead early after just three minutes. Ben Cahill finished off his shot from close range at the 2:27 mark to give Grace an early spark. Grace doubled its advantage with a tricky combination play from Nikola Blazic and Danilo Carnelos. Blazic received a pass in traffic and played a perfect ball to Carnelos for the emphatic finish in the 22nd minute. The teams went into the halftime break with Grace ahead 2-0. The Lancers outshot the Maple Leafs (7-7-1, 2-3-1 CL) 10-4 in the first half. After several strong looks to start the second half, Dylan Andersen found Grace’s third goal in the 64th minute. Gift Sibukome found Andersen in the penalty box, and Andersen netted his goal off the crossbar. The Lancers’ defense muted the Maple Leafs’ attack throughout the match, holding Goshen to seven shots and zero shots on goal. Jacob Cole picked up the shutout victory as goalkeeper. The starting defending line of Jon Sands, Danilo Carnelos, Nakilee Weni and Justin Festa held Goshen to zero shots on frame. Cahill paced Grace’s offense with three shots. Trent Smith, Kyle Hamlin, Carnelos, Andersen and Josiah O’Deens had two shots apiece. The Lancers will look to continued their winning ways on Saturday with a match at Bethel at 5 p.m.
