After playing five home games and garnering a 5-0 record, the Chargers left their unblemished record in the Upper Peninsula.
Following an eight hour drive to Northern Michigan University, the Chargers lost all three sets to the Wildcats on Friday. The Chargers drove an additional two hours to Michigan Technological University on Saturday where they fell to the Huskies 3-1.
As of Friday, NMU was not only tied with Hillsdale for a perfect season, but they were the keepers of a rather sterling record against the Chargers: In the past 12 years, Hillsdale has managed to defeat them only once.
Despite the discrepancy in past performances, however, the Chargers fought hard and put up a challenge for the Wildcats. NMU defeated the Chargers by only four points in the first set.
In the second set, the Chargers came out strong but were not able to overcome the well-fortified team. The Chargers forced the Wildcats to climb to 29 points to snag the win.
Wolfert came in on the 12th point and served the next six, including three aces. During her serving streak, she also made a key save and a kill from the back row, proving she’s a player that thrives on chasing a comeback.
“I personally love pressure situations,” Wolfert said. “I just told myself it was go time and we just had to at least go down fighting.”
Sophomore Erin Holsinger led the offense with nine kills and a .412 hitting percentage. Freshman Jessie Kopmeyer also made six kills and no hitting errors in the third set. Freshman libero Brittany Jandasek led the team defensively with 13 digs.
Hillsdale struggled for kills, making 26 hitting errors by night’s end.
“Hitting against [them] this weekend was rough because of the hard defense we faced,” junior Haylee Booms said. “We tried to hit from different angles, but we just couldn’t find the right one. They penetrated the net really well.”
When Hillsdale was able to get its hits past NMU’s blockers — hits that would have been kills against previous opponents — NMU’s back row turned them into precise passes that flowed into a neatly run offense. The Chargers found it difficult to do the same.
“They had a strong offense but we definitely should have been able to handle it,” Jandasek said. “We just failed to execute everything the way we normally do and know we can.”
The Chargers lost the third set, 22-25.
In Saturday’s match against Michigan Tech, the Chargers won their first set 25-18. But the Huskies secured wins in both the second and third sets.
Head coach Chris Gravel attributes the Charger loss, at least in part, to the Huskies’ tenacious middle, which made 12 block assists compared to the Chargers’ four.
“[Their middle] did a great job capitalizing on each opportunity and their setters read our positioning very well and distributed their sets accordingly,” Gravel said.
Nevertheless, the Chargers will learn from the weekend.
“I wish we would have finished a little stronger,” Wolfert said of the Chargers’ game against NMU. “But it just shows that we’re still not where we want to be yet and we still have a lot of work to do if we want to reach our goals.”
The Chargers will play at Wayne State University and at Saginaw Valley State University this weekend.
