Grace College Athletics

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio - Grace's volleyball team was unable to deal Mt. Vernon Nazarene its second loss of the season, falling in four sets in the Crossroads League Tournament semifinals on Wednesday.

The Lady Lancers (19-17) will shift focus to qualifying for the NCCAA National Championships. Grace will need to win the Midwest Regional Tournament next week to punch its ticket to NCCAA Nationals.

Grace struggled to get its offense in rhythm in the semifinal match against top-seeded Mt. Vernon. The Lady Lancers hit .108 as a team compared to .247 for Mt. Vernon.

The Cougars (32-1) scored nine of the first 12 points of the opening set, forcing Grace to burn an early timeout. Grace struggled to bridge the gap, however. The Lady Lancers amassed just five kills in the set and fell 25-14.

Grace started stronger in the second set and was within striking distance after the first 20 rallies. But the Cougars used a 5-0 run to pull ahead by seven and eased away for a 25-12 win.

The Lady Lancers found revenge in the third set. Grace ran off an 8-3 spurt to gain separation from Mt. Vernon, and the Cougars were forced to call timeout, trailing 17-12. The hosts closed the gap to three at 19-16, but a well-placed timeout from coach Katie Van Hofwegen stemmed the tide. Grace recovered to win 25-20 on a kill from Sierra Smith.

The Cougars went on to finish the match in the fourth set with a 25-16 win. Mt. Vernon had 16 kills on just four errors in the final game.

Kelsee Zuidema had Grace's strongest offensive game with 12 kills; she also had two aces and four digs. Kaitlin Kerrigan was efficient with 11 kills on a .346 percentage.

Laken Chaney tied for match honors with 22 assists, and Tori Bontrager tallied six blocks and two block assists. Naarah Foster and Kari Feddema had three block assists apiece, Sara Miller notched 15 digs, and Caylie Teel chipped in 10 digs.