Langhorne, PA - The Highlanders completed their first annual Cairn Classic on Saturday afternoon with a 3-0 sweep of York College to finish 3-0 on the weekend and improve to 5-4 this season. Cairn defeated Southern Vermont College 3-0 Friday evening and Lancaster Bible College 3-0 to open the volleyball action Saturday morning.

Friday, Jan. 30
 
Cairn's attacking efforts against Southern Vermont College were led by two first-year students: Andy Willits and Micah Godshall. Both players registered nine kills in the match and Godshall had a .353 attacking percentage. Randall Colson hit seven kills in the match and also had a good hitting percentage, with .357.
 
Matthew Rhodes played well on the receiving end with 12 digs in the match. Alex Lower translated those passes into assists with 28 overall.  Southern Vermont collected more kills in the match than Cairn, but had nine fewer digs than the Highlanders.
 
The Highlanders made comebacks twice in the first two sets in order to secure the victory. In the first, Cairn was down 16-12 but came back to tie the set at 17-17. The Mountaineers went ahead 20-18 but from there the Highlanders dug deep and won the last seven points for the 25-20 win.
 
In the second set, Cairn found themselves down 18-13 but would eventually come back to tie at 21-21, thanks in part to two kills and an ace by Willits. The teams kept the tie score until 24-24 and Cairn hit the final point with emphasis on a hard service ace by Josiah Buss.
 
The Highlanders took control in the third set after two long runs with Alex Lower and Josiah Buss at the service line. Randall Colson scored the final point of the match on an emphatic kill out of the middle.
 
Saturday, Jan. 31

Cairn opened play on Saturday right where they left of the previous night, with a 3-0 sweep of Lancaster Bible College. The Highlanders dominated the first two sets, winning 25-13 and 25-10. Josiah Buss registered 11 kills in the match to lead the team, while Andy Willits matched his number from Friday night with nine. 

The Highlanders looked to continue the trend into the third set but committed 10 errors, allowing the Chargers to stay in the set throughout. Lancaster  Bible competed point for point until a tie score at 18-18. Cairn took the lead 21-18 but Lancaster Bible came right back to tie the match again at 22-22. The Highlanders took a timeout after that a won the final three points, ending on a block by Randall Colson. 

Micah Godshall followed up the hitting with eight kills overall. As a team, the Highlanders hit a percentage of .209 and held the Chargers to just seven kills for the match. Alex Lower put up 30 assists in the match and Matthew Rhodes dug 11 balls. 

Cairn then took on York College for the final match of the tournament on Saturday afternoon. The Highlanders followed up their style of play from the game against Lancaster Bible and forced York to commit nearly double the errors than they had kills. Cairn collected 30 kills in the match and were led by Willits with nine, who stayed consistent with the other two matches.

Michael Emond also came through with a great game, collecting five kills and one error hitting out of the middle spot along with Colson who had six kills. The middle hitting duo propelled the team to an attacking percentage of .242 for the match. 

Alex Lower had 25 assists for the match, while Matthew Rhodes (7 digs) and Josiah Buss (6 digs) controlled the defensive effort for the Highlanders. 

York College was led by Edner Geffrard with five kills and Randy Adams followed him with four. Overall, the Cardinals hit a percentage of -.143, committing seven errors in each set. 

With the three wins, Cairn's overall record improved to 5-4 in 2015. Southern Vermont moved to 4-1 overall, Lancaster Bible went to 1-5 overall and York dropped to 0-6. The Highlanders will next host Eastern Mennonite University next Friday, Feb. 6, to begin conference play in the CVC. 

Listed below is the All-Tournament selections for the 2015 Cairn Classic.

Cairn: Micah Godshall (MVP of tournament)
Cairn: Josiah Buss
SVC: Joey Dighton 
SVC: Scott Fitzgerald 
LBC: TJ Forsythe 
York: Edner Geffrard