GRAND RAPIDS — The Hope College volleyball team hadn’t seen a win over Calvin in The Rivalry in years.

In fact, only two Hope seniors were even in the match the last time Hope beat Calvin, and they were freshmen.

But the No. 20 Flying Dutch used an incredible energy from the outset on Friday, led by McKenna Otto and Ryan Stutz, to knock off No. 2 Calvin 25-18, 25-18, 11-25, 25-20 at Van Noord Arena.

“This has been a long time coming,” Hope senior Ryann Stutz said. “We found our competitive edge.”

Hope made plenty of adjustments from the first matchup and used a dominating performance by Otto, who slammed 17 kills and hit at a stunning .552 percentage. She also had seven blocks to lead the defense.

“McKenna was really explosive tonight,” Hope coach Becky Schmidt said. “They have typically given us fits with the serve. I was really proud of the passers for getting to the ball and making good passes.”

Stutz, who played perhaps her best match, and had a block late in the fourth and slammed a kill on match point to seal the victory.

“I felt I unlocked a different level with my confidence,” Stutz said. “We talk about finding the balance between intensity and keeping things light. I felt like I gave more today and I think everyone helped me do that.”

Hope improved to 18-5, while Calvin dropped ton 20-2. This was a non-conference match since the MIAA has moved to a single round of conference play.

But this rivalry is too special to have just one matchup.

Calvin had won seven in a row coming into Friday, including a sweep in the first matchup of the season, the one that counts toward the conference standings. The last time Hope won in The Rivalry was in 2016 with a five-set win at Calvin in the MIAA title match.

Now, The Rivalry is tied 1-1 with a likely showdown in the MIAA title match still to come.

“It is just a testament to the hard work we put in to building our team culture,” said senior Gabbi Vachon. “We have been able to push each other really hard in practice. We had the trust to fire on all cylinders. We were preparing for this. We know what to expect from this environment. We fed of the energy that the Calvin students give to us. We just never stopped believing.”

Hope started the first set with a 5-1 lead. Tied 8-8 after a couple of Calvin aces and blocks. But a huge block by Ryan Stutz and McKenna Otto gave Hope the lead and an ace by Gabbi Vachon pushed the Hope lead to 12-8.

Two blocks by Sarah DeVries tied at 15 before Ana Grunewald put Hope back up with a kill. Stutz slammed a kill to put Hope up 20-17.

Otto slammed a cross-court kill for a 25-18 set win, holding Calvin to a hitting percentage of .048.

The Flying Dutch continued that momentum into the second set.

Otto slammed a free ball to make it 20-13. Kills by Otto and Stutz made it 22-15. Two more kills from Otto gave Hope a 25-18 win in the second.

“We adjusted our timing a lot. We had to get used to the pace of the game. Once we did that, our block was good. We went up strong,” Otto said. “Offensively, we were getting in system a lot. That got me in the strongest spot. Mixing those up was a big thing.”

The Knights found some energy in the third set, opening up an 11-6 lead, taking advantage of some Hope service errors and missed blocks. Calvin started serving stronger and putting up stronger blocks.

Kelsey Smith and Madelyn Hall posted kills that put the Knights up 19-8 on their way to a 25-11 rout in the third with Hope hitting -.250 for the set.

“We had to let it go and play free,” DeVries said. "We played a lot better and did that in the third set.”

But that momentum did not carry over into the fourth.

Otto started the fourth set with a big kill in the middle. She had three kills in the first four points to put Hope up 4-0 and force Calvin to take a quick timeout.

Two kills from Grunewald made it 10-4.

The Knights won a marathon point to get the crowd back into it, trailing 21-15. Hope took a time out, but four more points in a row for Calvin cut the lead to 21-19 and Hope took another timeout.

A huge block by Stutz and Molly Ligon made it 23-19. Ligon had a kill on the next point. Stutz slammed a kill on match point for a 25-20 win.

“I was happy with the way we were working to get more offense from lots of players,” Schmidt said.

Grunewald had 10 kills, while Stutz and Ligon each added six. Tracy Westra had 21 assists and Adair Cutler had 13. Vachon had 19 digs, Grunewald had 12, while Jenna VanderLaan and Grace Pettinger each had nine and Cutler had seven.

Westra had give blocks, while Stutz and Ligon each added three and Charlotte Brecht had two.

“Hope came out and played very aggressively and beat us for much of the match on the serve pass game. I was happy with our resiliency in the third. But I think we came out tentative,” Calvin coach Amber Warners said. “We can always learn from every match. You tip your hat to Hope for playing a good match tonight. I am sure it will give us a little more motivation.”

DeVries had 15 kills, 21 assists and 13 digs to go along with three blocks for the Knights. Kelsey Smith tallied 14 kills, Anna Schriemer had 21 assists, Aubrey Wrubel had 18 digs and Grace Kellogg had 11. McKenna Covey had six blocks.

“It stinks to lose in a big rivalry match like that,” DeVries said. “If anything, it will fuel us to keep working hard. We hate that feeling and don’t want to feel it again.”

— Contact Sports Editor Dan D'Addona at Dan.D'Addona@hollandsentinel.com or 616-546-4276. Follow him on Twitter @DanDAddona and Facebook @Holland Sentinel Sports.