The Hillsdale volleyball team took the lead in the G-MAC North Division last weekend as seniors Karoline Shelton and Linnea Larson swept the player of the week awards.
The Chargers played against the Findlay Oilers on Oct. 28 and 29, first at home and then in Findlay. Heading into the weekend, Hillsdale was tied with the Oilers atop the G-MAC North Division — but, a pair of four set wins put them ahead.
“Everyone knew these were big matches so everyone wanted to compete really hard,” assistant coach Taylor Wiese said. “We had four really good days going in and Friday had a huge home crowd, which was awesome.”
Shelton received her third G-MAC North Division Offensive Player of the Week award for the season, leading the Charger offense in kills during the Findlay matches for a total of 32. Her 1,409 total career kills place the outside hitter at fourth in the program’s history.
Larson brought home the weekly award in the defensive category, compiling three solo blocks and eight block assists during the two matches. The middle hitter is now averaging 1.16 blocks per set, a team high.
“For the Findlay games, it was really exciting to play them, especially twice in one weekend because we are such big rivals,” setter and outside hitter Madeline Zenas said. “Both games were extremely competitive.”
The Chargers came out strong in their home matchup Friday, jumping out to an early 1-0 lead with a 25-16 first-set win. The Oilers fought back in the second set to even the match 1-1, but the Chargers won both the third and fourth sets to put themselves one game ahead of the Oilers in the North Division
“There was a lot of energy, both on the court and from the fans, which made for a really fun game,” Zenas said.
The team traveled to Findlay the following day, and the Oilers, looking to once again even G-MAC records with the Chargers, pulled out a first set win, 25-17. Hillsdale quickly rebounded, however, and swept the next three sets to secure a share of the G-MAC North Division title.
“We knew it was gonna be more challenging going to Findlay so we had a really good mindset of we need to make some adjustments, ” Wiese said. “We worked really hard again, and we were able to do that.”
Wiese said that the team’s effort while serving improved and that they were able to get their middles involved more as well.
“Friday we really didn’t serve as tough so they were able to get some big kills,” Wiese said. “We really got our middles going. Linnea Larson got some really big kills on Saturday, Maisie Brown got a ton of kills on Saturday too, so they were able to come in and be really, really effective.”
Assistant coach Allyssa Van Wienen said they were also able to display how well-rounded their roster is during the Findlay matches.
“It was nice on Saturday to be able to put Madeline Zenas in for a couple sets,” Van Wienen said. “She did a really nice job coming off the bench and doing exactly what we needed her to do on the court. Same thing with Adi Sysum, she came in and she got a huge kill and a couple of blocks. Those were all momentum shifts that kind of carried us to the win, so it’s really, really nice to see that depth from our bench in big games where it actually matters.”
Zenas said that this depth is what gave them the win in the end.
“It was fun to see the players who came off the bench really step up,” Zenas said. “You could tell everyone was ready to go. This was beneficial for us, as Saturday’s game was more back and forth. Both teams were really trying to expose each other’s weaknesses, and I think our team’s depth and determination helped us finish strong in the end.”
The Chargers now prepare for the final weekend of the regular season with matches against the Walsh Cavaliers and Malone Pioneers. During the Saturday match against Malone, the Chargers will also honor six members of the next graduating class for senior day. These six are Megan Kolp, Linnea Larson, Audrey Riley, Karoline Shelton, Emily Susitko, and Madeline Zenas.
“These are our last two matches in what we call ‘phase three,’ so we want to finish off with two wins and would love to have four more good days of practice this week,” Wiese said.