PIKE CREEK, Del. - The Goldey-Beacom College volleyball team's late rally versus Philadelphia University Tues. night came up short in a 3-1 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conferece loss at the Joseph West Jones Center. The Lightning lost a dreadful first set, 25-10, showed some life in set two but lost 25-20, won set three 25-21, and finally lost a nailbiter in set four, 25-23.

The Lightning fall back into a tie with Georgian Court for fifth place in the CACC South Division standings with a league record of 6-10. They are 12-14 overall. Meanwhile, Chestnut Hill eeked out a 3-2 win over USciences tonight to pull in front of GBC by two matches for fourth place in the South. The Griffins (8-8) also hold the tiebreaker over GBC having swept the Lightning this season.

Leading GBC offensively tonight were freshman outside hitter Kadi McCoy (14 kills, .407 hitting percentage) and senior middle hitter Rebecca Stoffer with 13 kills. Both were also among five different Lightning players in double figures for kills, as McCoy had the team-high 17, senior Roni Shaner was all over the floor with 16, junior setter Monica Dempsey pitched in with 14, Stoffer had 11 and freshman libero NIki Receveur collected 10. Dempsey also finished with a match-high 32 assists.

In the first set, Stoffer had two kills early on to keep the Lightning in striking distance, but with the score knotted at six-apiece, PhiaU used a 5-0 run to take control of the set with an 11-6 lead. The Rams would charge ahead to score 14 of the final 18 points of the set, and win convincingly, 25-10.

PhilaU jumped out to a 5-2 start in the second set, but the Lightning came storming back with an 8-3 surge to go up 10-8. After a timeout, the Rams charged back with a 4-0 run to regain the lead, 12-10 only to have the Lightning rally for three straight points and go up 13-12. The Lightning led 15-14 when PhilaU went on a 6-1 run to pull ahead 21-16. Still, GBC showed no quit, fighting back with four straight points (two of which were kills by Shaner) to pull within a point, 21-20. But beginning with one of the Lightning's six service errors on the night, PhilaU rallied to score the final four points of the set and win, 25-20 to take a 2-0 match lead.

After hitting a negative percentage in the first two sets, the Lightning re-grouped in the third set and hit .244 as a team in the third set with 17 kills to six errors. Freshman Taylor Moyer and McCoy both began to heat up as the Lightning never trailed after turning a 10-9 deficit into a 12-10 advantage early in the set. Moyer finished with three kills, McCoy had six, including set point, as GBC won 25-21 to force a fourth set.

With McCoy needing her ankle re-taped in between sets three and four, head coach Rich Bowers was forced to use a timeout before the start of the fourth set. When play began, three Lightning kills by three different players had GBC with a 3-2 lead early on. But that is when PhilaU marched on an 8-0 run to go up 10-3. Slowly but surely, the Lightning worked their way back into the set helped by three McCoy kills and a kill apiece by Moyer and Stoffer, to force PhilaU to call a timeout wit the score, 15-12. Out of the timeout, the Rams scored three straight points to extend the lead back to six, and they would by as many as eight, 22-14. A frantic Lightning rally that ignited the Jones Center crowd saw GBC scored nine of the next 10 points and tie the score at 23-apiece. But PhilaU would close out the set and the match with two straight points - a kill by Emma Claffy and a Lightning attack error.

GBC will host Senior Night on Thurs. as the Lightning take on USciences at 7 p.m. in the Jones Center.