The Chargers opened their season by playing in a tour- nament hosted by five-time defending NCAA Champions Concordia-St. Paul in Min- neapolis, Minn. The team went 0-4 against Concordia, South- west Minnesota State Univer- sity, Brigham Young University (BYU)- Hawaii, and Regis University.
“When I scheduled the tour-
nament last year, I knew that this was a possibility with the level of competition each team brought,” head coach Chris Gravel said.
This hasn’t deterred the team’s lone senior, Lauren Grover.
“It humbled us and showed us that we need to continue to get better,” senior Lauren Gro- ver said. “It taught us that we should not become complacent, but to strive for more.”
At the end of last season, the team graduated seven seniors
who led the squad to a GLIAC title, regional championship, and the semifinals of the nation- al tournament. Seven freshmen have joined the team this year.
Grover said they have a strong athletic freshman class and each freshman is a great individual.
“Almost all of the freshman were able to play this week- end,” junior Sydney Lenhart said. “This helps them see the competition and allows us to see how they play.”
Junior Caitlin Kopmeyer said
she thought the team played their best against number- one-ranked Concordia and the freshmen were able to grasp a good sense of how quickly they needed to block.
“This is the youngest team that Hillsdale has seen in a while,” Gravel said. “We have to mature quickly, but I am pleased with how the team did.”
The team faced a strong level of competition this weekend. Gravel said SMSU has a chance at the national title, and BYU- Hawaii has one of the best play-
ers in the nation. Gravel said he would like
the team to become not only a GLIAC contender, but also a national one with the level of competition at which the team is playing.
“Our ultimate goal is to beat a team of [Concordia’s] height,” Grover said. “We need to make everything click as a whole, and once we do that we will get back to where we were last year so that we can have a chance at beating Concordia.”
Grover, Kopmeyer, and Len-
hart said they hope to continue having great practices this week for another out-of-conference tournament at the University
of Findlay Sept. 7-8. There the team will play the University of Indianapolis, Wheeling-Jesuit University, Urbana University, and California University of Pennsylvania.
“Since our first weekend did not turn out the way we wanted, it makes us try that much harder so that we can do better in the next coming weeks,” Lenhart said.