The Hillsdale College volleyball team went 2-1 in the GLIAC/GLVC Crossover tournament over fall break.
The Chargers won their first match of the crossover against Bellarmine University, three sets to one on Friday afternoon.
Hillsdale won the first two sets 25-19 and 25-15. They started the third set behind 0-6, and while they were able to tie the set 10-10, they went on to lose 25-21. They came back and won the fourth set 25-19 to win the match.
On Saturday, the Chargers were swept by Lewis University (13-25, 18-25, 13-25). Lewis came out solid and polished, senior captain Caitlin Kopmeyer said, and only made 10 errors in the match.
Hillsdale, however, did not come to play, Kopmeyer said. The Chargers had as many kills as errors with 26.
Head coach Chris Gravel explained that part of the team’s problem was that several players were not feeling well on Saturday morning, so he had to change the lineup to one they had never run in a game before.
Gravel said on Saturday the team had one of their worst matches and then followed it with one of their best matches.
After losing to Lewis, the team came back to defeat the University of Indianapolis 3-1.
“I was fed up with it and not willing to play that awful again,” junior Kat Vael said. Vael had four kills against Lewis, but came back to have 13 against Indianapolis.
Sophomore Jordan Denmark also had 13 kills, as well as 10 digs.
The Chargers had been looking to redeem themselves, Gravel said, since they lost to Indianapolis early in the season on Sept. 7 in the Concordia- St. Paul tournament.
The team had still been working out kinks in Minnesota, but played as a team this last weekend, Kopmeyer said.
The weekend before the crossover tournament, the Chargers played two home games against Lake Erie College and Ashland University.
On Oct. 18, Hillsdale continued a five-game winning streak and swept Lake Erie 3-0 for a crowd of over 400 fans. Gravel said the game went as planned.
“We served pretty tough and passed well,” Gravel said.
On Oct. 19, Hillsdale was swept by Ashland.
“I didn’t think we served as tough or passed very well,” Gravel said.
While the Chargers lost all three sets, they were never out of the game. They lost each set by only two points, losing 24-26, 23-25, 23-25.
Gravel explained that everything that used to be easy suddenly became difficult against Ashland.
“Losing to Ashland definitely hurt,” Kopmeyer said. “We came out, and we were flat. We couldn’t really get it going from there.”
Gravel said the loss to Ashland helped motivate the team for the tournament.
“We approached Indy like an Ashland and took out our frustration,” Gravel said.
The win against Indianapolis gives the Chargers a 12-10 record going into this weekend. Hillsdale will be on the road for the last time this season to play Saginaw Valley State University on Friday and Lake Superior State University on Saturday. They come back home Tuesday Nov. 5 to play Northwood University (Mich.).
Saginaw Valley went 3-0 in the crossover tournament and is on a winning streak, so the Chargers will have to play one of their best matches, Gravel said.
Gravel also explained the weekend will be even more challenging because the team will have to travel farther than normal to play Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula.
He said they plan on having a good week of practice, and he expects good games.
“We are ready to finish out the traveling with a bang,” Vael said.
