Despite decisive victories in several matches, the Hillsdale College volleyball team suffered its first two losses of the season over the last week. The Chargers’ record is now 7-2.
In matches against St. Michael’s College on Friday and Glenville State and Mercyhurst on Saturday, the Chargers won a series of 3-0 sweeps. However, the Chargers also left the tournament in Erie, Pennsylvania with their first loss of the season, to Gannon College.
“Traveling to Erie gave us a chance to give [travel] a test,” head coach Chris Gravel said. “We did OK, but need to figure out how to do better.”
The Chargers won against St. Michael’s by the largest margin of any match this season — scoring 25-11, 25-12, and 25-9 through the three games. Junior Paige VanderWall led one of the most efficient offensive efforts since the program’s founding, with ten kills and a .909 hitting percentage.
“It was a slower match and I think as a team we just executed on what we needed to do by making few errors and playing our game.” VanderWall said.
“As a whole, St. Michael’s was a weaker team, but our players did a great job shutting them down and beating them,” junior outside hitter Kara Vyletel said. “We played them our hardest and that showed clearly through Paige’s success.”
Vyletel herself showed an impressive performance at the Erie tournament, netting 18 kills and a .400 hitting percentage against Mercyhurst. Another outsider hitter, freshman Maddie Clark, achieved a career high of six kills in the same match.
The Chargers did not see the same success all weekend, however. In Hillsdale’s Friday night loss at Gannon, the set scores were 25-23, 25-21 and 25-13. The Chargers’ hitting percentage was .150 compared to the Golden Knights’ .314.
“Traveling will definitely be a frustration,” Vyletel said. “Our team works a lot on mental discipline, and that will be a key part to our success on the road. I have no doubt that we will be able to come off the bus ready to work our hardest and remain mentally tough.”
Gravel said that the most encouraging thing the Erie tournament revealed was strong support from the bench.
“The team is really like an iceberg,” he said. “You see the players on the court, but that is the tip of the iceberg. Underneath it is that big, wide, strong base — the rest of the team.”
Tuesday night, the Chargers lost a tough 3-2 match at the University of Findlay.
Gravel described the Findlay match as a “battle.” Three of the five sets played required extra points to determine the victors. Overall, Hillsdale’s average hit percentage over the games rounded out to .198, with 66 kills and 31 hitting errors. On the other hand, the Oilers had a .195 hitting percentage, 60 kills, and 24 hitting errors.
“We are all responsible for representing this college to the best of our abilities and we are all in this together,” Gravel said. “We win as a team and lose as a team. It doesn’t matter if you are the oldest member of the team or the youngest.”
Gravel also said the team is keeping its focus on the games to come this weekend as it looks ahead to more conference play.
“We are going to find a way to get two points better this week” he said.
The Chargers return home to the Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena this weekend for a Friday evening match at 7 p.m. against Cedarville, and a Saturday afternoon match against Ohio Dominican at 1 p.m.