WINONA LAKE – Grace College’s volleyball team continued its challenging nonleague schedule by playing a pair of teams receiving votes in the NAIA Top 25 on Friday.

The Lady Lancers split the day at the Lindsey Wilson Tournament, beating Point Park and falling to St. Catharine.

In the opening match of the tournament, Grace experienced defeat for the first time this season. Despite earning nine block points in the match, the Lady Lancers (5-1) struggled to slow down St. Catharine’s attack and lost 3-1. The Patriots (5-3) hit .301 as a team, including .467 in the decisive fourth set.

Grace fell behind early in the first set and never recovered, losing 25-13. The Lady Lancers rebounded to pull out a hard-fought 25-22 win in the second set, closing out the game on a 7-2 run which ended on a kill from Laken Chaney.

The third set started out in Grace’s favor, leading 13-8. But the Patriots found their stride midway through the game and ended the set on a 17-4 run to win by eight. St. Catharine closed out the match with another 25-17 win.

Sierra Smith led Grace’s attack with 10 kills to go along with a solo block and two block assists. Kari Feddema had seven kills on an efficient .375 percentage, and Caylie Teel notched 7 kills, 9 digs and 2 block assists. Laken Chaney tallied 31 assists with eight digs, and Sara Miller added 16 digs and two aces.

Grace made short work of Point Park in the second match of the day, winning in straight sets. Chaney led a balanced offense with 33 assists, helping eight different Lady Lancers record multiple kills. As a team, Grace had 23 more kills, 21 more assists, 6 more service aces, 19 more digs and 5 more block points in a dominating effort.

The Pioneers (0-8) were held to just two kills in the entire opening set as Grace won 25-12. Grace had 16 kills in the second set en route to a four-point win, and the ladies closed out the sweep with a 25-15 victory in the third set.

Smith had her second strong match of the tournament, leading Grace with nine kills on a .533 percentage to go along with two block assists. Tori Bontrager finished with seven kills and two block assists, and Megan Johnson notched 10 digs and six kills.

Annie Salazar served up four aces, and Sara Miller finished with three aces and a match-best 20 digs. Marta Bleed and Grace Woolsey added five kills apiece, and Jessica Scherb had eight digs.

The Lady Lancers end the tournament on Saturday with matches against Campbellsville and NAIA No. 7-ranked Lindsey Wilson.