On Wednesday, Hillsdale College lost to Ashland University in the opening game of the GLIAC tournament to end their season.
The Chargers fell behind early in the first set, 0-5, and were unable to come back, ultimately losing the set 19-25.
Despite scoring the first point of the second set, the Chargers quickly fell behind again, and lost 20-25.
After making some changes to the lineup, including switching libero from senior Caitlin Kopmeyer to senior Sydney Lenhart, the third set was much closer. Hillsdale had a two point lead of 18-16, but a controversial out-of-bounds call ruled in favor of Ashland shifted the momentum into the Eagles’ direction. Ashland then had a five point run to change the score to 21-18.
Hillsdale kept the score close, but another controversial call ruling that Hillsdale had touched a ball that went out of bounds gave Ashland the game winning point to win the match 23-25.
Sophomore Emily Wolfert had 12 kills, senior Sydney Lenhart had 14 digs, and junior Alexis Waugh had 22 assists.
Hillsdale ended its season with a 15-15 overall record, and a 10-8 record in the GLIAC.
On Friday, the Chargers endured a tough five set loss against Ferris State University.
Ferris State is ranked 24th nationally, and second in the region. The Chargers started out strong with a 5-0 lead in the opening set, which they won 25-18.
“After that we struggled to keep our momentum,” sophomore Marissa Owen said. “We had nothing to lose, but played like we did.”
Hillsdale started the second set behind 0-6, but eventually caught up with Ferris State. Despite a lead of 22-20 near the end of the second set, HIllsdale lost the set 25-23.
In the third set, the Chargers took a six point lead early in the game, but fell to Ferris 26-24.
Hillsdale had a rough beginning to the fourth set, starting behind 0-3, but head coach Chris Gravel called a timeout and told the team to start over with a clean slate from that point on, sophomore Jenalle Beaman said.
After the early timeout, Hillsdale’s momentum picked up, and they won the set 25-20.
The Chargers carried their momentum into the beginning of the fifth set with an 8-3 lead, but Ferris State regained its momentum and came back to win the set 16-14.
“We had our opponent, but we let it slip through our fingers,” Gravel said.
On Saturday, Hillsdale lost in four sets to Grand Valley State University, ranked first in the region, and 13th nationally.
Again, Hillsdale came out strong in the first set, starting with a four point lead, and eventually won the set 25-23.
“In the first game, we came out strong, confident, and ready to go,” sophomore Emily Wolfert said. “But in the next three we lost our drive.”
Hillsdale lost the last three sets 16-25, 18-25, and 19-25.
“There were multiple errors we didn’t pick ourselves up from,” Beaman said.
