The tournament featured four rounds of trials. During each round, teams had a chance to win up to two ballots, which are awarded by judges. The team with the most ballots at the end of four rounds wins the tournament.
After racing through the first three rounds of the competition without losing a ballot, the A-team faced the A-squad from the University of Michigan, the 21st ranked team in the country. By defeating Michigan’s A-team, Hillsdale earned their first perfect score at a tournament this year.
Junior Sophia Klomparens, captain of the A-team, said this was the first time this lineup had ever competed together. Klomparens said the win was reassuring as the team moves towards the postseason.
“It gives us a lot of confidence going into Regionals knowing we can get that kind of record from a tournament that is actually much harder than Regionals is going to be,” Klomparens said.
Senior Lauren Eicher said the team experimented with some new material and roles during the tournament and is still adjusting to them. She said the team will look to cut words to save time moving forward.
Eicher credited freshman Megan Williams with having one of the key performances over the weekend as Detective Chesney. Despite having never played the role before, Williams won an outstanding witness award.
“(Williams) was poised, professional, and knew all her facts,” Eicher said. “It was super exciting to see all her hard work pay off.”
The B-team also competed in Bloomington over the weekend and ended the tournament with a 3-5 record. Team captain Andrew Simpson said the team will only get better as it adjusts to the new material written over winter break. Simpson said this was also the first time the B-team lineup had competed together.
“We definitely don’t lack in talent—it’s just polish and that just takes a bit more time,” Simpson said.
The B-team has several freshmen on the roster, and Simpson said the newcomers to the team had a strong showing this weekend.
“We definitely had some strong performances from some freshmen witnesses. Jenny Wiland and Ethan Tong both play experts and they did a fabulous job this weekend,” Simpson said.
The next time the two teams compete will be at the regional competition in Indianapolis, Indiana on Feb. 8-9. The podium finishers at that meet will advance to the Opening Round Championship Series. Since 2013, Hillsdale has never failed to qualify a team for the Opening Round Championship Series.
