After five hard fought sets, the Hillsdale volleyball team dropped its first in-conference match since 2017, breaking a 92-match win streak last Friday night before rebounding with a four-set win on Saturday.
Prior to Friday’s loss, the team had won 78 straight regular season G-MAC matches as well as 14 straight postseason matches against G-MAC opponents.
The Chargers played in road matches against the Cedarville Yellowjackets and the Ohio Dominican Panthers on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, losing 2-3 to the Yellowjackets and picking up a 3-1 win over the Panthers. The split leaves Hillsdale with a 15-3 record, 8-1 in conference.
“I wouldn’t say we had our best day, but Cedarville played extremely well,” head coach Chris Gravel said. “They were the better team that day, so we don’t want to take anything away from them.”
The Chargers came out strong against the Yellowjackets with a decisive 25-11 first set win, but, as has been the case several times this season, they failed to control the second set in the same manner. Cedarville took the next two sets 25-17 and 27-25, forcing the Chargers into a tough spot down 1-2 heading into the fourth set.
Hillsdale was able to stave off defeat, winning that set 26-24, but ultimately came up short with a 15-11 loss in the fifth set. The Chargers, however, did see some strong performances. Sophomore libero Alli Wiese finished with 38 digs, a single match personal best and just two shy of the program record set by her sister and current assistant coach, Taylor, in 2019. Sophomore outside hitter Marilyn Popplewell led the team in kills, tallying a single–match personal best at 19.
Following this weekend’s matches Wiese is averaging nearly the same number of digs per set, 5.37, as she did last year when she set the program’s single season dig record with 5.38 digs per set.
“It was definitely a tough loss for the team, but I think we can learn a lot from it, and apply what we learned to future matches and practice,” senior middle hitter Linnea Larson said. “I think the team is feeling driven to improve this week in practice and prepare for the rest of the season.”
The loss marks the end of an impressive streak that began on Sept. 15, 2017, when the Chargers last fell in a similar 5-set match to the same team. But, according to sophomore setter Lauren Passaglia, the team is approaching the loss with a positive mindset.
“Obviously, no one wants to lose or be the team that breaks the streak but now that it’s happened there’s almost a pressure lifted off the team’s shoulders,” Passaglia said. “We now get an opportunity to start a new winning streak and continue to work to our potential without the fear of losing.”
On Saturday the Chargers were given a chance to pick themselves back up against Ohio Dominican, and, despite a first set loss, were able to sweep sets two through four and finish out the weekend with a win.
“The mindset was that we were going to take out our agressions on Ohio Dominican, but it didn’t quite work out that way,” Gravel said. “It was still a match where we were struggling a little bit, but we made a lot of good plays in key situations and were able to walk away with a win.”
Larson said that the team was able to secure the win due to the mental strength and tenacity of the players even after the tough loss the day before.
“On Saturday against Ohio Dominican, we came out a little timid, but ultimately in the second set and for the rest of the game, we had a champion mindset,” Larson said. “It was ultimately our energy and mindset that won that game.”
This week the Chargers will prepare for matches on Oct. 7 and 8 against the Tiffin Dragons and Ashland Eagles.
“We’re going back to watch a lot of film,” Gravel said. “We’ll be doing individual sessions with people about their game and looking at what they might not realize that could be considered wasted movement.”
Gravel also said that the team will keep working to maintain the peak physical condition that has aided them so far in the season.
“We’re going to continue to work on being the fittest and strongest team out there so we can outlast teams,” Gravel said. “A lot of teams when they play a game like we did on Friday, don’t have a whole lot the next day. But we were still able to take care of business whereas Cedarville did not, they lost the next day.”
The tough weekend, according to Passaglia, will only provide more fuel for motivation moving forward.
“This weekend is going to be another challenging weekend,” Passaglia said. “But after experiencing a loss the team is more motivated than ever to continue to push each other and work even harder.”