WINONA LAKE, Ind. - The home opener for Grace's volleyball team produced a memorable 3-1 victory over Taylor on Wednesday night.

The No. 21-ranked Lancers (8-2, 2-1 Crossroads League) came from behind to take down the Trojans, using a balanced offense and a stout defense to win the match.

Grace had three players reach double figures in kills, led by Anna Ballengee's match-high 16 kills.

The back-and-forth match saw the score get tied 38 times with 14 lead changes. The middle two sets saw 24 tied scores combined.

The first set remained close throughout. Grace plagued itself with attack errors during the set, allowing Taylor to open up a slight edge at 19-16. 

Grace battled back to tie the match at 20s, but three more attack errors down the stretch allowed the Trojans to pull away for the 25-21 win.

The second set went deep into extra points. Grace started the set well with a 10-6 lead.

The Lancers still led 22-19 and served for the set at 24-22. But the Trojans forced extra points by winning the next two rallies.

Taylor had the early advantage in extra points, going ahead by one six times. But Grace managed to survive each nervy set point, using kills from Alisha Voss, Anna Elkin, Ballengee and Leah Henderson to stay alive.

With the score knotted at 33-33, Taylor made an attack error to open the door for Grace. Ballengee took advantage, pounding out a kill on the final rally to hand Grace a 35-33 victory to even the match.

Grace's momentum seemed to carry into the third set. Grace scored the first four points after kills from Voss, Elkin and Sahara Bee.

But the Trojans swiftly recovered to claim an 18-15 lead. Grace struggled to bridge the gap and soon faced a daunting 24-20 deficit.

A Trojan service error gave the ball to Emma Blackford to serve, and Blackford delivered. Blackford aced twice down the stretch, aided by a kill apiece from Bee and Voss, allowing Grace to stun the Trojans and rally to win 26-24.

In the fourth set, Grace pushed ahead by four midway through the set and never relinquished the lead. Elkin ended the match with a kill on the final play as Grace won 25-20.

As a team, Grace finished the match with 5 more kills, 4 more digs and 7 more block points.

Voss amassed 12 kills, 2 solo blocks and 5 block assists, and Livia Tate had 6 kills, 1 solo block and 7 block assists.

Bee pounded out eight kills with six block assists, and Liz Schmidt collected 20 digs.

Grace's freshmen shined in the match as well. Elkin had 11 kills, 3 digs and 3 block assists, Henderson tallied six kills and two block assists, and Olivia Martinez produced 11 digs while being perfect in serve receive (25 attempts).

Riley Owens added 28 assists with 14 digs, while Morgan Syoen had 17 assists with 10 digs.

Blackford served up three aces to go along with four digs, and McKenzie Stakely aced once and had nine digs.

The Lancers are on the road on Saturday, playing at Spring Arbor at 1 p.m.