After a 2-1 weekend at the Midwest Regional Crossover Tournament, the Hillsdale College volleyball team will head into the second half of its season. The Chargers now carry a 13-6 overall record, 5-3 in the GLIAC.
The team has built up its endurance in recent weeks — five of the Chargers’ last seven matches have gone to five sets. This weekend was no exception.
The Chargers lost two five-set battles: one on Friday night against the Rockhurst University Hawks and another on Saturday morning against the University of Indianapolis Greyhounds. Saturday afternoon, however, the Chargers flipped their momentum, sweeping the Truman State Tigers and snapping their four-game losing streak.
Head coach Chris Gravel said the competitive weekend will help the Chargers start the second half of the season off strong.
“It was a bad weekend because we’re judged by wins and losses, but as far as development goes it was a pretty positive weekend,” Gravel said. “All three teams played very well against us. It might have been what we needed to get over the hump and get back on the good side of the streak.”
After recording double losses to Wayne State and Findlay on Oct. 7 and 8, the Chargers entered the Midwest Regional Crossover Tournament hoping to bounce back.
On Friday night, the Chargers fought hard, but couldn’t secure the win. Rockhurst, No. 1 in its division, pushed to a 27-25 win in set one. The Chargers fought back with a 25-22 win in set two, but Rockhurst sailed to a 25-16 win to regain its lead. In set four the Chargers powered to a 30-28, then carried that momentum into the tiebreaker set, gaining an early 8-5 lead.
From there, Gravel said the Chargers faced some “unfortunate” calls, and found the score tied at 11. The Hawks made their final push, winning the fifth set 15-11.
“It was a little heartbreaking because the teams were evenly matched,” Gravel said.
Though some of the region’s best hitters were on the other side of the net, Hillsdale’s hitters had a record-breaking match. Sophomore outside hitter Kara Vyletel slammed 26 kills during the match, tying for the school record for kills during a single match. Junior outside hitter Jackie Langer added 19, her new season high.
Another long, grueling match opened Saturday’s play as Hillsdale matched up against the Indianapolis Greyhounds. The match went back and forth: the Chargers taking sets one and three, and the Greyhounds grabbing the ones in between.
When the Chargers fell to a 10-5 deficit in set five, they couldn’t recover. The Greyhounds ran away with a 15-9 win to cap the match.
On Saturday afternoon, the Chargers decided they’d had enough and powered to a 3-0 sweep over the Truman State Tigers. The Chargers were dominant in their 25-20 set-one win, then rallied from behind to win set two after the Tigers pounced to a 7-0 lead. To end the match, Hillsdale edged to a 25-22 win in set three.
Vyletel completed a trio of impressive performances, leading the offense again with 14 kills and a .364 hitting percentage. VanderWall and Langer added 11 kills each to round out the offense.
A few Chargers came off the bench to contribute this weekend including junior Brittany Jandasek who came out of recovery after a second surgery this summer. Senior outside hitter Sam Siddall came in to provide a bigger block, while freshman Hannah Gates got her first start in set three against Truman State. Freshman Anna Owens, too, came in against Indianapolis.
“Versatility became a prominent strength for us this weekend because we had the ability to switch around the line up on the court and that really helped us to be more unpredictable to our opponents,” VanderWall said.
In recent weeks, the Chargers have struggled toward the end of matches, Gravel said, but this weekend he saw improvement in that realm.
“We learned some tough lessons this weekend,” Gravel said. “It’s happened to us a couple times, we’ve struggled a bit toward the end, but I really think that two out of three matches we did quite well at the end of sets. That’s a good sign.”
Still, VanderWall said the team should continue to work strong finishes.
“Our overall sense of urgency will be on our to do list to improve,” VanderWall said. “Our goals will be finishing every game and to have a successful post-season by playing every regular season game tough.”
The Chargers will hit the road again, traveling to Tiffin University on Friday and Ashland University on Saturday. Though Hillsdale has gone 15-0 against Tiffin since 2001, the Dragons feature a strong defense this season. The Ashland Eagles won three straight matches at the crossover tournament, and are consistently hard to beat on their home court.
“We need to take care of the little things, every small contact made and the big things will take care of themselves,” senior middle hitter Erin Holsinger said. “We need to be disciplined and willing to outwork our opponents.”
Gravel said he’s confident in his squad.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us being on the road again,” Gravel said. “But if I were an opposing team, I wouldn’t want to play us.”