The Hillsdale College volleyball team impressed fans in ts first true home weekend, winning on both Friday and Saturday.
It was their first game in the newly renovated court, which senior Sydney Lenhart said was finished Friday afternoon shortly before the 7 p.m. game.
“The floor was great,” head coach Chris Gravel said. “The temperature was not.”
The gym was uncomfortably hot, which Lenhart explained worked as an advantage for Hillsdale because they were used to practicing in it, but she said it was not an advantage to the fans.
In the first two sets against Malone, the Chargers never lost the lead, winning the first set 25-14, and the second 25-20.
In the third set, however, the Chargers started out behind 0-6 and despite a comeback, eventually lost the set 23-25.
“Everyone said they wanted us to win that third set,” Lenhart said of Friday’s game against Malone.
“We weren’t quite as focused,” junior Meagan McPhetridge said. “And they came out stronger after the break.”
McPhetridge said that Hillsdale came out with more of a business mentality in the fourth set. The set began as a close competition until the score was 8-7, but the Chargers had several runs that extended their one-point lead to a 25-11 victory.
Sophomore Emily Wolfert, who sang the national anthem before the game, had a season-high 21 kills.
Junior Alexis Waugh had 30 assists, and senior Caitlin Kopmeyer had 25 digs.
“It was more of a team effort,” McPhetridge said. “There was a lot of communication between players on the bench and on the floor.”
On Saturday, the Chargers swept Walsh University. They held Walsh to only eight points in the first set, 14 in the second, and 19 in the third.
“The best part was that we did come out focused and strong and maintained it through the match,” McPhetridge said.
Lenhart noted that the team reached a season-high hitting percentage of .358 and redshirt junior Lindsay Kostrzewa had a career high .714 hitting percentage.
This weekend, Hillsdale goes back on the road to play Wayne State University on Friday and the University of Findlay on Saturday.
Gravel explained that Hillsdale has great history with these teams.
“The matches have been brutal- in a good way,” he said.
He explained that the teams have very good offenses, which Hillsdale will try to slow down in order to win.
Lenhart said that it is really fun to play the teams in the South.
“We only play them once,” she said. “So we want to beat them while we have the opportunity to.”
