The Hillsdale College volleyball team extended their winning streak to five games this weekend and tallied their 20th victory of the season, sailing to a 3-0 victory at Malone University on Friday evening before also sweeping Walsh on Saturday afternoon. The winning weekend boosted the Chargers’ record to 20-6 overall and 12-4 in the GLIAC.
“We understood that these might not be the best teams in the conference,” senior middle hitter Emily Wolfert said. “But we knew we still needed to come out to play and treat them like any other opponent. We kept saying we have to respect them, we can’t dip down to their level or get complacent.”
On Friday, the Chargers used aggressive serving to rattle the Pioneers. Senior setter Marissa Owen served three of the team’s season-high 10 service aces.
“We did serve them off the court,” head coach Chris Gravel said. “We were cruising through because we were serving so tough it made a lot of the other parts of the match a lot easier.”
Hillsdale recorded just 33 kills, but Gravel said his team still played a solid offensive match with good blocking efforts that forced Malone to make errors. Wolfert led the Chargers’ offense with eight kills.
On Saturday, the Chargers matched up against Walsh on the Cavaliers’ Senior Night. Gravel said the Cavaliers “played their hearts out” which was reflected in the tight scores of the first and third sets, 25-23 and 25-20 respectively. In set two, however, the Chargers dominated for a 25-12 blowout win.
Junior middle hitter Erin Holsinger led her team with 11 kills and six blocks. Holsinger hit .714 against the Cavaliers. Wolfert played her second errorless match of the weekend and slammed eight kills for her team. This middle-hitter duo has proved consistent and valuable to the Chargers’ offense throughout the season.
“The middle has to be an offensive option every time,” Gravel said. “They need to be up in the air, and they’re supposed to block every single ball from the opponent. It’s important to have people in there who can do that job and Emily and Erin have been very successful.”
This weekend the Chargers will stay home to play their last two conference games. The Chargers will host Ashland on Friday at 7 p.m. and Lake Erie on Saturday at 2 p.m. Although the Chargers have already clinched a spot in next week’s postseason tournament, they are placing their focus on finishing strong in the regular season.
Wolfert explained the Chargers’ breakdown.
“We break our season up into phases,” she said. “Phase one is preseason, phase two is conference play. We’re in phase three right now and before we get into phase four, postseason play, we have to finish phase three on a good note. We have to focus on the here and now.”
Freshman outside hitter Kara Vyletel agreed.
“Focus is definitely key in the next few weeks,” Vyletel said. “This is where it’s most important to stay humble and work hard. We need to take every chance we get to strengthen our game because our competition is doing the same.”
Wolfert said it is obvious that some teams, including Ashland, have started to look too far ahead, and it has resulted in losses. The Eagles have fallen to Lake Erie and Ohio Dominican in recent matches but are currently 12-4 in the conference.
On the other hand, underdog Lake Erie, currently 3-13 in the conference, is riding a hot streak, having recently beaten both Ashland and Tiffin.
Regardless, Gravel is planning for a third consecutive winning weekend.
“As far as we’re concerned we’ve had our share of losses already,” Gravel said. “We don’t need any more of those. That’s the mindset. If we want to continue to keep playing and keep representing like we have we need to continue playing well, and if we continue playing well we’re usually going to win.”
On Saturday, the Chargers will honor their five seniors. Wolfert said she is excited for Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena to fill with Charger families on the exciting night.
“It’s fun to be honored in some way,” Wolfert said. “I think it will add some more emotion to the game which will be challenging to deal with but also fun and could add some good emotions too.”
Gravel said he has seen much growth in the senior class, and has appreciated their mentoring the freshman class this season. He said Saturday night will not be a goodbye.
“We’re a tight team so we get close with all of the girls, and when you’re going to lose a big chunk it’s hard on the coaching staff,” Gravel said. “But we never say goodbye to our seniors. They continue to work with us the following semester and then we like to track them and make sure we’re keeping in touch.”