WINONA LAKE, Ind. - Grace College's volleyball team beat Bethel 3-0 on Wednesday night to complete the season sweep over the Pilots.
The Lancers (24-6, 12-4 CL) were dominant in the victory, surrendering no more than 17 points in a single set.
The Win also guarantees that the Lancers can finish no worse than third in conference and clinches a home match in the first round of the Crossroads League tournament.
Callie Jo Celichowski had an early kill as the Lancers blitzed out to a 5-0 lead. The Pilots answered back with three points of their own but an ace from
Grace Bowers and a trio of kills from Molly Hoffman had the Lancers ahead 9-3.
The Lancers fired at an astonishing 55 percent in the opening set and after
Levyn Snow and
Abby Leffring combined for four quick kills, Grace led 16-8.
The Lancers ended the set on a 3-0 run and clinched the set 25-13 after a kill from Leffring.
The second set proved to be the most competitive of the match. After the first seven points the Pilots led 4-3.
After pulling even at six points apiece,
Emily Uhlmann made a tactical attack from the setter position and earned Grace a point that set the Lancers off on a four-point run to get jump ahead 10-6.
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Savannah Clawson and
Leah Henderson got in on the action in the middle of the set with kills to push the lead to seven and Elkin added another to her tally as Grace to give the Lancers a 20-12 edge.
The Pilots pulled back to within five points but the Lancers closed the door on any hopes of a comeback when
Olivia Martinez picked up a kill to give Grace a set two victory  25-17.
In set three Bethel scored first and held a 4-1 lead before a kill from Celichowski and an ace from
Brea Harris helped the Lancers to reclaim the lead at 6-5.
The Lancers controlled the action through the middle of the set and a pair of errors saw the Lancers lead 12-8. Henderson added a kill as the Lancers increased the gap to six points.
Leffering had consecutive points for the Lancers and the game ended on a Bethel error to give grace the set victory and 25-14 to complete the sweep.
Grace finished the game with a .343 attack percentage compared to Bethel's .062. The Lancers also added eight blocks.
Leffering led all players with 10 blocks and Celochowski had seven blocks. Harris had three aces and
Reese McCutchan added 13 assists.
The Lancers will be back in action on Saturday at 1 P.M. against Goshen.
