Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department
The 2006 Hillsdale College volleyball team joined the ranks of Hillsdale’s best athletes Oct. 11 in its induction to the college’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
This team, along with other former college athletes, became the college’s 25th class inducted into the hall of fame.
To receive this honor, a team must win an NCAA or NAIA national, regional, or district championship or conference title, according to Director of Athletic Communications James Gensterblum.
The 2006 team is the only volleyball team in Charger history to have a perfect regular season, recording a 27-0 record according to a Hillsdale Chargers press release. The team won the GLIAC regular season championship and earned a NCAA tournament victory.
This team, according to Gensterblum, helped create a roadmap for future teams, as it hosted NCAA tournament events, won a conference title, and won an NCAA tournament match.
“That model was this team who had done all these things for the first time that had never been done before,” Gensterblum said.
Chris Gravel, head volleyball coach and assistant athletic director, coached the 2006 team and said his entire 2006 squad showed up for the event.
“There were people on that team that I had not seen since they left campus,” Gravel said. “That was definitely a highlight for me that they all cared enough to come back to be in person for that.”
The induction ceremony, hosted in the Searle Center, was the most attended hall of fame ceremony, according to Genseterblum.
“I want to say it was close to 400 people, which was nearly 100 more than we’ve had since we moved it to the Searle Center,” Gensterblum said.
This was assistant volleyball coach Megan Molenkamp’s first hall of fame banquet. As a member of the 2006 team, she said that now the hall of fame team has something very special.
“A lot of us had been playing together for a long time at that point, and we always knew we had a special season, but it was really thrilling and humbling to be inducted and invited to be a part of the Hillsdale College Hall of Fame,” Molenkamp said. “The banquet was uplifting and encouraging, and it was an honor to be able to stand on the stage with my teammates and coaches.”
Inductees gave remarks throughout the night, and among those speaking on behalf of the women’s volleyball team were teammates Taryn (Rudland) Monroe and Stephanie Booms.
“They did a phenomenal job sharing old stories, sharing highlights as a whole team of things we trained for, and the way coach gave us some challenging tasks that were very unique,” Molenkamp said. “We had to put our pride to the side and march through campus doing a military march, but it was the volleyball team, and so some people may have been embarrassed by that, but we got over ourselves quickly to get that task accomplished.”
Gravel commended the team’s commitment and willingness to sacrifice.
“The reason why they are in there is their resilience and how committed they were to the program and to winning,” Gravel said. “They were willing to do whatever it took and they sacrificed a lot to put themselves in that situation where they could win all those matches in a row.”
Gravel said hearing from his team and working with them made him proud and grateful.
“To see such gratitude from the team itself about their time at Hillsdale College, the education they received, and the time that they got to spend with the team and the accomplishments we made, and failures, together are just all a reflection back on exactly what I was feeling as a coach,” Gravel said.