The Hillsdale College volleyball team has advanced its winning streak to a 4-0 record, dominating the first road-trip competition.
The Chargers kept their momentum of three-set sweeps, beating Malone University 25-17, 25-21, and 25-22 on Jan. 29.
“We were relieved,” head coach Chris Gravel said. “This was the first road trip, and it started out a little rough but eventually we got it together. It’s very clear on what we need to work on for this week.”
Although the team breezed through the competition, Gravel said that there are specific things the team will keep working on.
“We need to tighten up some of our skills, some of our accuracy, and our passing and setting,” Gravel said. “We need to become a little higher risk when it comes to running our offense.”
The battle of defensive and offensive runs reached a peak on Saturday against Walsh University. As Hillsdale ended the first set, they set up for game point, but the celebration started too soon.
“We set, arguably, our most powerful hitter Alyssa Van Weinen, and she absolutely crushed what seemingly was game point,” Gravel said. “Our team started celebrating, but this Walsh player out of nowhere came and just got an arm on the ball and popped it up, and got the ball over and won the rally.”
Walsh then took this run and beat Hillsdale in a set 29-27. Though this was their first set loss in 58 matches, the Chargers did not let it ruin their motivation, Gravel said. At the third set, Gravel told the team to look over and examine the energy of the other team.
“It’s tied up, and we look over at the timeout, and they’re all hunched over and breathing heavy, but we’re fine because we’ve spent so much time on physical training,” Gravel said. “There were a couple of long rallies, and we just prevailed and we knew that we had them because they were getting up slow after every play. We got stronger as the day went on.”
The Chargers shifted gears and outworked Walsh in the final set, finding a balance in their defensive and offensive attacks, Gravel said.
“Walsh had one last chance and they ran their best play, and their outside hitter just absolutely crushes it, but Madie Schider just digs it and not only gets under it, but it’s a perfect pass to Alyssa and she was ready,” Gravel said. “We crushed a really quick set.”
Hillsdale beat Walsh in four sets with scores of 27-29, 25-20, 25-17, and 25-15. They remain unbeaten in the conference as two Chargers won G-MAC awards at the close of the weekend.
First, junior outside hitter Karoline Shelton won the G-MAC Offensive Player of the Week award for the second week in a row.
“I thought that we definitely improved this weekend and we kind of found the spark that we need,” Shelton said. “Whenever we’re in big games or whenever we get to game time, we figure out how to hit that spark and then move on from there.”
Freshman libero Allison Wiese won the G-MAC Defensive Player of the Week award for the first time of her collegiate career.
“I was so excited but pretty shocked,” Wiese said. “I did not expect it at all and it was a great surprise.”
After dominating the weekend matches, Wiese said that the wins formed a good outlook on the season, but that they must keep looking forward in practice.
“It’s a good motivator, but we can’t just look at the past,” Wiese said. “You have to focus on what’s coming up and just keep going with every game. That’s why we’re so excited every time to get on the court because we’ve been waiting so long. I would have already been done with my first season by now, but now we’re just starting.”
This weekend, the team will take another road trip to Ursuline College to play on Feb. 5 at 7 p.m., and then compete in a non-conference match on Feb. 6 at 1 p.m. against 23rd-ranked Gannon University, a Division II Elite Eight qualifier in 2019.
“We’re really excited for this weekend and being able to finally play somebody out of conference again,” Shelton said. “It’s going to be a really big motivator for us this week in practice. We’re also super excited to come back home again after this weekend, but we have to get these road wins first.”