GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - - The No. 9-ranked Madonna University volleyball team did it the hard way on Thursday (Sept. 24), dropping sets one and two at Cornerstone before having to sweep sets three, four and five for a dramatic 3-2 (21-25, 16-25, 25-14, 25-13, 15-11) come-from-behind win over the Golden Eagles inside Mol Arena.

Senior outside hitter Mary McGinnis (Fraser, Mich.) led all players with 16 kills while sophomore middle Katie Altman (Taylor, Mich.) added 11. Junior outside Liz Dempsey (Westland, Mich.) and sophomore outside Katie Czarnecki (Chesterfield, Mich.) each posted nine terminations while freshman Kathleen Donehue (New Hudson, Mich.) added a career high seven kills in the win. Senior setter Inta Grinvalds (Portage, Mich.) handed out 45 assists while Dempsey led the defense with a team high 17 digs to go along with 14 from sophomore libero Amanda Koszela (Dearborn, Mich.), while junior defensive specialist Anna Gatt (Livonia, Mich.) posted 13 digs. Senior DS Abby Long (LaPorte, Ind.) posted a season best 11 digs for MU. Becky Albrecht led CU with 14 kills and 16 digs.

Set one was back and forth from the start with a total of nine ties and four lead changes. MU took the lead at 15-14 on a block from sophomore Marie Martin (Canton, Mich.) and Czarnecki. That lead was short lived as CU came back to tie the set at 15-15 before taking the lead for good on back-to-back Crusader mistakes at 18-16. Down the stretch five more MU miscues led to the 25-21 final.

The second set of the night was also tight very early on but once the Golden Eagles took a 5-4 lead on Crusader mistake, they never looked back in rolling to the 25-16 win. CU took advantage of MU's .028 hitting percentage in set two for the win.

After the 10-mintute intermission, the Crusaders came out firing on all cylinders as the Royal Blue and Gold Took the lead for good at 3-2 on a McGinnis kill and after three straight CU errors forced the Golden Eagles into a time out, the MU offence never looked back in the 25-14 win. A pair of kills each from Altman and Donehue down the stretch mixed in with a pair of Crusader blocks set the stage for a Dempsey service ace to end the set and send the match to a fourth set.

Set four was much like the previous one as the Crusaders took the lead for good early at 2-1 thanks to a Golden Eagle mistake and never gave the lead back. Once the Crusader lead grew to three at 10-7 thanks to a Donehue kill from Gatt, the lead was never smaller than three as balance hitting - two kills each from McGinnis and Dempsey along with another from Donehue - and solid blocking - pushed MU to a 20-13 lead sending Gatt to the service line. With the junior DS serving the MU offense ran off five straight points, thanks in part to four CU mistakes to send the Crusaders to their second straight five-set match with the 25-13 win.

Just a pair of ties - at 1-1 and 5-5 - were seen in the final set of the night as Czarnecki gave MU the lead for good on a cross court winner that made it 6-5. After building the lead up to three at 10-7, MU saw Cornerstone climb back to with in one at 11-10 and force head coach Jerry Abraham to burn a time out. That time out work as the Crusaders allowed just one more point the rest of the set, getting kills from both Altman and McGinnis wrapped around a combo block from the duo in the 15-11 win.

The Crusaders have little time to enjoy the win as Windsor comes calling on Friday (Sept. 25) for a 7pm match inside the Activities Center.