For the Chargers volleyball team, nearly every game turns into an all-out brawl — of the last six games, three were decided in the fifth set, and the others were close-scoring.
After traveling to Aurora, Illinois for the annual GLIAC/GLVC Crossover Tournament on the weekend of Oct. 17, the team battled through three conference games, emerging with a 9-12 overall record, 7-7 in GLIAC play.
On Tuesday night, the Chargers travelled to Findlay University and lost to the Oilers for the first time since October 2009.
The game was Hillsdale’s second against the Oilers this season. Hillsdale last played the Oilers at home, and beat them 3-0. This time, the score was reversed, but it wasn’t for lack of effort on the Chargers’ side. The Chargers finished each set trailing the Oilers by only a few points.
The final scores were 22-25, 21-25, and 23-25.
“We’re definitely coming out of it refusing to settle. It’s going to be a good couple days of practice,” senior Kat Vael said.
The Chargers beat Tiffin University on Saturday, but the match was by no means a sweep.
Hillsdale has not lost to Tiffin since the Dragon’s joined the GLIAC in 2008, but by the beginning of set five last weekend, the game looked like it could go either way. The first sets went to Hillsdale, 25-21 and 27-25; the next two to Tiffin, 25-21 and 26-24.
According to head coach Chris Gravel, Tiffin ran a very fast set to their outside hitters.
“They also played great defense against us, which gave us some challenges,” Gravel said.
In the final set, the Chargers pulled ahead of the Dragons by more than double their score, 15-7.
“We buckled down and just went after them. We refused to lose again and it paid off,” said junior outside hitter Emily Wolfert.
Friday, Hillsdale lost 3-2 to Ohio Dominican University, though in the first set, the Chargers looked to have the upper hand.
Senior middle hitter Lindsay Kostrzewa said losing to ODU was the most frustrating loss of the season so far. Friday’s loss was Hillsdale’s first to the Panthers since they joined the GLIAC in 2010.
“Losses like this hurt, because you know at the end of the day, all people see is a loss,” Kostrzewa said. “We knew going in that they were ahead of us in the South GLIAC standings (ODU was 7-4, Hillsdale, 6-5), but we were excited to work hard for this game. We did all the hard work to secure our win, and then we let it slip away.”
Junior setter Marissa Owen found running the offense challenging last weekend, partly because of the different playing styles of the teams.
“Both teams were putting up good blocks so I had to work hard to set the hitters up with a single block,” Owen said. “Also, both teams ran very different offenses. We had to change our offense based on what the other team would run.”
Although the Chargers’ performance over the weekend lacked the consistency for which they have strived, several team members played well in both games. Freshman libero Brittany Jandasek earned a career-high of 28 digs against ODU. The following night she topped her career-record with 34 digs against Tiffin, making her eligible to join the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s 30-dig club. Jandasek’s dig high is the third-highest in a single match in school history.
In true Charger fashion, Jandasek expressed gratitude to her team for her accomplishment.
“I would not have been able to achieve these things without my teammates. Our block was great this weekend, which helped tremendously on defense,” Jandasek said. “It is an honor just to be starting and representing this team. Playing with this team is the highlight of being at Hillsdale.”
Junior Jordan Denmark and sophomore Erin Holsinger achieved impressive stats against the Panthers. Denmark snagged a team-high 19 kills, and Holsinger blocked eight hits, one of the higher block totals this season.