UPLAND, Ind. - Grace and Taylor's volleyball battled in a thrilling five-set match on Saturday afternoon.
The Lancers saw their 12-match winning streak come to an end, falling 3-2 on the road to No. 14 Taylor.
Grace (15-3, 3-1 Crossroads League) was enjoying its fourth-longest winning streak in program history, a stretch that included multiple ranked upsets.
The first set was a dynamic display of offense for Grace. The Lancers blitzed the Trojans (15-4, 3-1 CL) with 17 kills in the opening set.
The teams traded small leads throughout the set until two kills from Anna Elkin helped Grace edge in front 20-16.
The Trojans did their best to recover, pulling to within one. But Grace ended the set with a kill from Molly Hofmann and Savannah Clawson to close the win 25-22.
Taylor responded swiftly with a 12-point win in the second set. Grace's attack was much quieter with seven kills and nine errors.
But the Lancers roared back with a strong third set. Grace kicked off the set with a 9-4 lead.
A few minutes later, Clawson erupted with three straight kills, which was followed by an ace from Reagan Owens and a kill from Elkin.
Taylor blew through both timeouts early and never recovered, allowing the Lancers to stroll to a 25-18 victory.
But Grace was unable to finish off the win in the fourth set. The Lancers' offense stalled midway into the set, allowing Taylor to turn a one-point lead into an eight-point win.
The momentum seemed to carry into the tiebreaking fifth set. Taylor won three of the first four points and soon grabbed an 8-3 lead.
Grace tried to steady itself with kills from Elkin, Leffring and Clawson. But the Trojans capitalized on Grace attack errors down the stretch, and Taylor rallied to win the match with a 15-8 win.
Elkin posted a double-double with 12 kills and 21 digs (match-high), and Clawson also did the same with 10 kills and 11 digs.
Leffring hit nine kills on a .368 percentage, and Callie Jo Celichowski and Levyn Snow each had eight kills.
Owens produced 20 digs with a pair of aces, and Carsyn Witt (24 assists) and Reese McCutchan (23 assists) directed the offense.
The Lancers' two games next week are against a pair of ranked opponents. Grace will travel to Marian (receiving votes) on Wednesday before hosting No. 15 Mt. Vernon Nazarene on Saturday (Sept. 19).
