SPRING ARBOR, Mich. --- Haley Biedenbach and Maddy Payne had a great night for the Bethel Pilots (17-14, 7-9) despite the five-set loss to the Spring Arbor Cougars (12-13, 6-10) on the road Wednesday night, 25-19, 27-25, 19-25, 20-25, 13-15.

Biedenbach hit the 2,000 career assists mark and took over the 10th all-time spot in career assists in program history over Lisa Setzler ('01) who had 1,528 and is shy of Sami Leach ('14-16) who ended her career with 2,459. With the milestone, Biedenbach had a double-double performance with 54 assists and 17 digs along with Payne having 19 kills and 15 digs.

A mix of hitting errors (38) and 15 blocks by the Cougars hurt the Pilots despite winning in the kills category 68-57, assists 64-49, and digs 96-93.

The Pilots opened the first set with a massive 12-4 run and hit 20 points quickly at 20-11 before running away with the first 25-19.

The second set was a battle tying nine times to force extra points with Payne and Biedenbach going back-to-back to secure the second 27-25.

Taylor Delp and Payne tied the third at 4-4 and 5-5 respectively to try and gain momentum to complete a sweep but the Cougars battled their way to a 25-19 third set win to keep them alive 2-1.

The fourth set looked similar to the third but maintained no more than a three-point advantage as they forced a fifth set.

With the fate of the match tied at 11-11 two consecutive attack errors put the Pilots behind 12-11 before Gracen Norris tied the match 12-12. With Pilot attack errors and SAU kills the Cougars won the fifth 15-13 and the match 3-2.

The Pilots have two more matches in the regular season with the Saint Francis Cougars at home on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 1 p.m. in the Goodman Gymnasium and the Taylor Trojans in Odle Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. and currently hold the five seed in the Crossroads League Tournament pending how the Pilots and the Spring Arbor Cougars, currently in sixth, finish the regular season.

For more information about Bethel Pilots Athletics, check out bupilots.com or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube by searching @bupilots or using the hashtag #AnchorUp for updates on all 31 Bethel Pilots sports.