Box Score BLUFFTON, Ohio – The Earlham College volleyball team pulled off a five-set comeback in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play on Saturday evening at Bluffton. 

The Quakers improve to 13-15 (6-3 HCAC). With the win, Ealrham secures the third seed in the HCAC tournament, and will host the Beavers on Wednesday evening in Druley Performance Gym. 

Maria Young was an offensive powerhouse with 31 kills and a .397 hitting percentage. The junior hit just six errors in the contest. The offense ran through Erin Wagner as the senior setter put up 58 assists on the evening and collected a team-high 23 digs to get her 1,000th career dig.

The Quaker offense started off hot, with a .310 attack percentage in the first set. Young scored nine kills in the opening frame without surrendering an error. As a team, the Quakers scored 18 kills, but the visitors did not record a block while Bluffton had four. 

The hot start fell flat in set two as the Quakers had a zero attack percentage after posting nine errors. The Beavers controlled the set with three blocks and a .438 attack percentage. Bluffton scored 15 kills in the set and had just one error. 

The third set saw four service aces for the Quakers in a narrow set loss. Earlham attacked at a .258 clip with 12 kills and four errors. Wagner combined with Liv Kyrk for the first Quaker block of the game in the frame. 

Earlham scored 15 kills and had a .143 attack percentage. After Earlham jumped out to a 5-1 lead, Bluffton gathered momentum and took control of the set. The Beavers led 21-15 in the closing points of the set. The Quakers caught fire and rattled off a 12-4 run through the end of the set to win 27-25. 

The Quakers kept their momentum into the fifth set, with an early lead carrying over into a 15-10 win. 

Earlham will see Bluffton again on Wednesday evening in Druley Performance Gym as part of the HCAC Tournament. The Quakers secured the No.3 seed in the tournament behind Transylvania and Mount St. Joseph. The winner on Wednesday will move on to play against the Lions on Saturday in Lexington.