The Hillsdale volleyball team took the conference crown for the sixth year in a row last week at the G-MAC Tournament in Ashland, Ohio.
The Chargers dominated throughout the three round event, losing only one of 10 sets in matches against the Northwood Timberwolves, Walsh Cavaliers, and Trevecca Nazarene Trojans.
“There was a lot of good ball played,” head coach Chris Gravel said. “All the teams that qualified, especially the ones that advanced, were playing really well. We had to deal with our ups and downs but in the end prevailed.”
All-Conference selections were also announced on Nov. 10 as the tournament got underway. The Chargers placed seven team members on the list, tying its best showing to date.
Senior outside hitter Karoline Shelton, sophomore libero Alli Wiese, and sophomore outside hitter Marilyn Popplewell made the All-G-MAC first team; sophomore middle hitter Maizie Brown and senior middle hitter Megan Kolp made the All-G-MAC second team; and senior middle hitter Linnea Larson and sophomore setter Lauren Passaglia made the All-G-MAC third team.
“Even though only 7 of us were honored, we all know that all 19 of us contributed to each other’s recognition and it always goes back to the team and how hard everyone works to make eachother better,” Popplewell said.
The G-MAC Tournament began with several upsets. In the first round, sixth-seeded Walsh took down third-seeded Findlay, eighth-seeded Tiffin defeated first-seeded tournament host Ashland, and fifth-seeded Trevecca Nazarene advanced over fourth-seeded Cedarville.
“We know anybody can beat anyone on any given day,” Gravel said. “All over the region, all over the nation too, same thing. So we didn’t have any idea who our next opponent was going to be.”
While most of the favorites fell early, the second-seeded Chargers took care of business right away with a sweep of a seventh-seeded Northwood team that had given them two of their toughest conference matches earlier this season.
According to both Gravel and assistant coach Allyssa Van Wienen, the second round match against Walsh was the toughest matchup of the tournament for the Chargers.
“They were swinging well,” Gravel said. “I mean offensively they were hitting some bombs and their error ratio was lower than usual.”
The Chargers began the match strong and went up two sets to none with relative ease, but the Cavaliers rebounded in an attempt to save their conference title hopes, winning the third set 25-19.
Walsh continued to play strong in the fourth set, taking it down to the wire at 24-24, but Popplewell and freshman outside hitter Emory Braswell strung together two crucial kills to break the tie and give the Chargers the 26-24 victory.
“I think we went in with a mindset that no team was going to give anything to us easy, so going in with that mentality really helped us perform well,” senior outside hitter Madeline Zenas said.
The win placed Hillsdale in the championship match against an unlikely Trojans team that had momentum coming into Saturday. With a conference title on the line, the Chargers put together an impressive outing with 38 kills, 44 digs, and seven service aces, to win the match 25-18, 25-13, 25-21
“It was super exciting to win a conference tournament again,” Wiese said. “I am super excited to move forward and every day moving forward will be a blessing to still be playing.”
On the back of this achievement, the Chargers received the seventh seed heading into the NCAA DII Midwest Regional. They will begin their defense of the regional title today in a 3:30 p.m. matchup against the Lewis University Flyers, whom they lost to in a five-set match earlier this season.
“We’ve played Lewis quite a bit over the years,” Gravel said. “We’re gonna have to just play a good game and anything can happen. We had them last time. We were up two games to nothing heading into set three and let them slip through our fingers and then we couldn’t recover, but since that match we haven’t lost.”
Gravel said that this is a special year at the national level in the NCAA, and he hopes that this team gets the chance to experience it.
“We’re really excited for this group to get to the NCAA Tournament, work hard, and try to get to the next level,” Gravel said. “This year at the national level it’s what’s called a festival year. So once every four years all the sports have their finals in one place, and the NCAA really goes overboard on making it a great experience so we’d love to be able to show this group that experience.”
