Gophers Rally in Fourth Set, Fall Two Points Short in Fifth

Chalk Delivers Six Kills in Opening Set, 19 in Match

LANCASTER, Pa. — The fifth set of Goucher's match against Lancaster Bible tonight featured eight ties, including 11-11, 12-12 and 13-13, but the Chargers earned the match's final two points to pull out a thrilling 3-2 victory.

Set scores were 24-26, 25-16, 25-19, 21-25, 15-13.

The Gophers (7-22) got off on the right foot by winning the first set despite being down as many as five points. The set was tied on 10 seprate occasions, the last of which came at 24-24. After fighting off a set point to level the score for the final time, a pair of attack errors by the Chargers (11-17) handed the win over to head coach Michael Bossom's squad.

Megan Chalk (Severna Park, Md./Severna Park) supplied the Gophers with six kills in the opening set and finished the match with 19.

Lancaster Bible assumed control of the second set after the two teams evenly split the first 14 points and the Chargers never trailed on the way to winning the third set.

Goucher trailed much of the fourth set before Chalk successfully placed a pair of kills to even the score at 17-17. The Gophers also earned the next two points on kills by Addie Lanzarotta (Los Angeles, Calif./Culver City) to go in front to stay. 

The Chargers bolted out to a 7-3 advantage in the fifth set before the Gophers came back to knot the score at 9-9 with a service ace by Lanzarotta.

A kill by Hannah Kuehl (Plymouth, N.H./Plymouth Regional) created a 13-13 tie in the decisive fifth set and returned service to Goucher, but Lancaster Bible closed out the match with kills by Lauren Daniels and Hannah Metzler.

Tori Rain (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) led the Gophers with 21 assists while Ashley Fan (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) had a team-high 25 digs from the libero position.