GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The No. 4 Carthage College women's volleyball team beat No. 20 Hope 3-0 before falling in the afternoon match against tournament-host No. 2 Calvin 3-1 Saturday at Van Noord Arena.

In the opening game, Hope (16-5) took a slim 14-10 lead early in the first set. Carthage (22-3) rattled off seven unanswered points to take a 17-14 advantage. The Flying Dutch responded with a 4-1 run to make the score 19-18 until the Lady Reds put together a 7-3 run of their own to close out the set 25-22. The back-and-forth effort carried into the second set with the score tied at 12. After Hope took a 17-14 lead, Carthage retaliated with an 11-4 run for the two-set lead. It was all Carthage in the final set going up 15-8 before taking the match 25-14. 

In the final game of the day, Calvin (19-1) started with a small 8-6 advantage. Carthage responded taking control of the set at 18-15. The Knights kept close with the Lady Reds getting as close as two before back-to-back kills from Haley Horner and Shannon Kebisek gave Carthage the set. The Lady Reds jumped out to a 6-0 lead to start the second set. Calvin responded to tie the set at 12 and later took control of the set 20-16. Carthage rallied late but the Knights took the set 25-23. Once again the back-and-forth play continued in the third set until Calvin took a two-point margin at 10-8. The Lady Reds kept close with the Knights but Calvin took a two-set lead 25-20. The Knights controlled a 15-13 margin in set four and went on to take the match 25-18. 

Carthage returns to conference play on Wednesday, October 23 traveling to face Augustana (Ill.) starting at 7 p.m. 

Head Coach Leanne Ulmer

"We had the chance to play some tough competition today back to back. I thought we did a great job against Hope hanging tough during the rallies. We had a really good team defense led by Megan Behrendt. The defense and serving on both sides made it tough to get kills but we hung in there and finally wore them down. Calvin is a great team and tough at home. We got the first set and had a chance to go up 2-0.  We came up short in set two then I think they made some adjustments. Their serving got tougher and I think we ran out of gas. I am proud of the way we battled. It was a great week of being tested against some of the best teams in the country. We did some really good things and got pushed to get better. Back at it next week against Augustana."

Quick Facts

• The Carthage defense held Hope to a .037 hitting percentage. 
• Haley Horner a total of 23 kills while Shannon Kebisek finished with 21 and Megan Behrendt tallied 20. 
• Ellie LeCount recorded 79 assists between the two matches and now sits fourth all-time in career assists with 3,712. 
• LeCount was also named to the all-tournament list. 

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