Senior Adi Sysum jumps to spike senior Josie TeSlaa’s assist: Courtesy | Ashley Van Hoose
The Hillsdale volleyball team beat rival Northwood University at home Oct. 24, winning its second five-set match against the Timberwolves this season. Hillsdale now stands 5-3 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference and 7-10 overall.
Friday night was one of the closest matches all year for both the Chargers and the Timberwolves.
The first set was off to a slow start but Hillsdale rallied with a 6-0 run, including two kills from freshman Grace Drake that led to a 25-19 victory. Drake said the Chargers won the set with aggressive plays, which carried throughout the whole game.
“I think we showed some really good fight and resilience in the first set with a strong finish,” Drake said. “The thing that really helped us finish the first set and the last two was staying aggressive. It’s easy to get nervous when the game gets tight and I think we did a good job swinging away in those situations. We’ve been focusing on playing fearlessly and it really showed up for us this weekend.”
Hillsdale led the second set 23-22 with blocks from junior Emory Braswell and sophomore Jenna Southland, but Northwood scored the final three points taking the set 25-23.
The Chargers were even more in control of the third set, leading 22-18, but with a late rally the Timberwolves took another match scoring the final eight points of the set, yet again winning 25-23.
In the fourth set, Hillsdale was at one point trailing the Timberwolves 24-23 and scored the last three points taking a 26-24 victory, forcing the match into a fifth set.
According to head coach Chris Gravel, sophomore Caroline Lanicek was a big help in the fourth-set win.
“The key play in set four when Caroline got a kill to stop Northwood from winning the match was a big kill,” Gravel said.
The Chargers seized control of the fifth set immediately with a 5-1 run that included kills by junior Molly Kennedy, sophomore Hannah Baker, and Lanicek. The Chargers finished the match with a block by Kennedy and Drake to take a 15-9 set victory, winning the whole match.
The third set was a small setback for the Chargers, but they channeled the aggressive energy they started with into the last two sets, according to sophomore Ellie Fles.
“I think we had a positive intensity going into the last two sets that came from working as hard as we could for the person next to us and really celebrating each other’s successes,” Fles said.
Braswell said the team has been working all season to get to this point, and looks forward to making progress every week.
“I’m really proud of our win against Northwood,” Braswell said. “We have been working extremely hard in practice to stay disciplined and that showed in our fight and determination to win on Friday. We still have lots to work on, but it is encouraging to see hard work pay off. We were really able to get our offense running which was very effective.”
Having solidified their spot in the top six in the overall standings in the GMAC, the Chargers will travel to Ohio this week to play Ursuline College Oct. 30, Ashland University Oct. 31, and Lake Erie College Nov. 1.
