Trojans Fall in Five Sets at Bethel

Box Score

MISHAWAKA, Ind. – The Taylor volleyball team fell in a five-set thriller at Bethel on Wednesday night in the Trojans' last regular-season road contest of the 2017 campaign.

Taylor (19-15, 9-8 CL) had four hitters reach double-digit kills on Wednesday night but 32 hitting errors limited the TU offense to a .097 hitting percentage and allowed Bethel (13-18, 6-9 CL) to edge the Trojans in a wire-to-wire match.

Junior Addy Bailey paced the TU attack with 14 kills while senior Kayla Springer added 12 while freshman Amanda Adams tallied 11 kills and sophomore Hannah Paul finished with ten terminations for the Trojan offense. Junior Haley Harrell dished out 44 assists for the Trojans and added 19 digs while sophomore Samantha Korn finished with 28 digs for the Trojan defense.

Taylor held off a Bethel rally late in the opening set for a 25-23 victory while the Pilots fought off a pair of set points in the second set, scoring the final four points of the set for a 26-24 win in set two to even the match at one set apiece.

The Pilots dominated the third set by a 25-16 count and built a 9-4 advantage in the fourth set before the Trojans rallied to take a 20-16 lead and eventually forced a fifth set with a 25-20 fourth-set victory.

The fifth set was as close as it could have been, featuring 14 ties and 14 lead changes with neither team leading by more than two points during the set. Bethel took a 4-3 advantage before the Trojans ripped off three straight points capped by a kill from Springer. The Pilots responded with three consecutive points of their own to reclaim a 7-6 advantage and the teams essentially traded points until BC's Kassandra Williams recorded three straight kills to turn a 15-14 TU lead into a 17-15 Bethel win.

Taylor will close out the regular season on Friday night as the Trojans host Goshen at 7:00 pm in Odle Arena. Crossroads League tournament play will begin on Saturday, Nov. 4^th with the quarterfinals.