Friday night was an evening of firsts for the Hillsdale volleyball team.
The Chargers won their first season match with a 3-0 victory over Lake Erie College in the new Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena.
The team was victorious again on Saturday against Ashland University, winning 3-0.
The wins avenged the Chargers’ previous performance at Southern Indiana University’s Dunn Hospitality Invitational where the team earned one victory and three losses.
Junior Jordan Denmark was proud of the way the team bounced back on Friday, sweeping Lake Erie in 25-13, 25-16, and 25-14 sets, but she also said that kind of play is not out of the ordinary for the Charger women.
“As a team, the way that we played with our energy and our interactions with each other is something that we always do in practice, but this weekend was the first time that we showed everyone what we do in practice,” Denmark said.
Coach Chris Gravel said that last week was a week of narrowed focus.
“It was a pretty intense week of practice last week,” Gravel said. “We really worked on focusing on what was necessary rather than everything at the same time.”
One area of focus was on serving, which paid off in Friday’s game. Denmark led the Chargers to an 8-0 lead at the outset, with three service aces in a row. The outside hitter showed her versatility throughout the match, with seven kills, a fourth ace, and 12 digs, in addition to her consistent serving.
The match also saw a personal best for junior and setter Marissa Owen, who reached a career-high with 37 assists in the 3-set match. Juniors Emily Wolfert and Haylee Booms made eight and seven kills respectively, with hitting percentages at .400 and above. (The hitting percentage is the number of kills minus the number of errors, divided by hitting attempts.)
Freshman Brittany Jandasek debuted well as libero at her first college season match, making 10 digs by the night’s end. In joining the Charger team, Jandasek has transitioned from playing mostly setter in high school to an exclusively defensive position.
Saturday’s match against Ashland was closer than Friday’s, but it was still a clear victory for the Chargers, winning in straight sets 25-15, 25-22, and 25-21. Saturday’s victory was particularly sweet for the Chargers, since Ashland was not only favored to win this year’s division, but they had also knocked Hillsdale out of the conference tournament and ultimately out of regionals last season.
“Ashland also played in a tournament a couple weekends ago and went 0-4 against four really good teams,” Gravel said. “But then they came thinking that, I don’t know, we would be easier? And that wasn’t the case.”
Denmark and Booms played another aggressive game, leading the offense with a combined total of 21 kills — Booms, 11, Denmark, 10 — and only one hitting error. Denmark also made 11 digs.
The weekend was especially good for Booms, whose performance over the weekend earned her “Player of the Week” for the GLIAC conference for the first time. Throughout both matches, Booms made only one hitting error — only once did she hit the ball out of bounds or get blocked. Like the rest of her teammates, however, she attributed her success to her team.
“It was awesome because honestly, the reason I got it is because my team played well, so it made me look good,” Booms said. “If the team wasn’t successful, I wouldn’t have been able to be successful.”
Owens again showed her mettle, making nearly as many assists as in the night before: 32, along with 10 digs. Jandasek secured the defensive team-high with 16 digs.
The Chargers will play in the new arena again this weekend on Friday at 7 p.m. against Northwood University and Saturday at 5 p.m. against Lake Superior State University.
