In one of the most crucial weekends of the season, the Hillsdale College volleyball team did exactly what it needed to do. The Chargers went 2-1 at the Midwest Region Crossover Tournament after falling to Rockhurst University and defeating Drury University and Truman State University.
Teams from the GLIAC, the Great Lakes Valley Conference, and the G-MAC competed this weekend in Aurora, Illinois to determine how many teams from each conference will make it to the NCAA tournament.
“Our fate was in our own hands,” said head coach Chris Gravel. “We did what we needed to do. Going in we needed to beat Drury and Truman, and we wanted to beat Rockhurst. I didn’t tell the players that, but that’s what we needed to do to set ourselves up for later.”
The top eight GLIAC teams recorded 14 wins while the top eight from the GLVC recorded 13.
Senior middle hitter Emily Wolfert shined, scoring her 1,000th career kill on Friday afternoon. Wolfert became just the eighth Charger to complete this feat. Wolfert was also named the GLIAC South Division Player of the Week after averaging three kills per set on the weekend. Wolfert now holds 1,035 total kills on her career.
“I knew I needed four more, but I tried to not think about it or count in my head because I knew that would put way more pressure on it,” Wolfert said. “But it was funny because my dad and grandpa were in the stands across the net from me videotaping every play just in case it happened, so I figured it must be coming up and that was fun.”
In their first match on Friday afternoon, the Chargers fell to No. 9 Rockhurst by just two points in a tight fifth set. The Hawks jumped out to win the first two sets but Hillsdale fought back to win the next two and drive the match into a fifth set.
“Against Rockhurst we actually did not pass well, it was something that we worked on all week, but we lost our ability to pass the ball,” Gravel said. “When you’re playing a team of that caliber it makes it tough. We were gritty, we pushed it to five which gave us a chance to win, but we did not play our best ball.”
Despite Hillsdale’s uncharacteristic passing performance, freshman outside hitter Paige VanderWall managed to slam a career-high 19 kills against the Hawks. Her fiery performance was sparked by her familiarity with the facility.
“Rick had been talking to me about how I had been guiding my shots instead of really going after them,” VanderWall said. “And being at Sports Performance Facility where I used to play every weekend, I was just like, ‘This is my comfort zone, I might as well go for it,’ and the whole team was really good at helping me out to get those hits.”
Later Friday evening, the Chargers bounced back from the loss to take down Drury University in straight sets. VanderWall stayed hot as she recorded 10 kills and five blocks.
On Saturday, the Chargers played their second five-set match of the weekend but saw more favorable results.
Their match against the Truman State Bulldogs gave the Chargers a case of deja-vu as they fell behind 0-2 in the first two sets. Once again the Chargers buckled down and pushed the match to a fifth set where they applied what they had learned during Friday’s loss.
“They didn’t see it coming, they were complacent and we were fed up and weren’t going to let it get away from us,” Wolfert said. “We knew that everyone had to bring their best game, and to come out right off the get-go. At first we actually didn’t do that, we let a few points slip away, and that was really a wake-up call.”
Wolfert said the Chargers then picked up their offense and began to serve aggressively, causing the Bulldogs to crack under the pressure as Hillsdale secured their 15-10 victory.
Wolfert had a spectacular showing against Truman as she set season-highs with 19 kills and five service aces. She also recorded five digs and three block assists. Wolfert had a .457 hitting percentage to top off the performance.
Over the course of the weekend, the Chargers saw a few of their key players struggle, but embraced the opportunity to bring players off the bench and try out new lineups.
“We showed our versatility. We knew we had versatility and we do train that way incase we run into these situations,” Gravel said. “This weekend we needed to perform, we needed to go 2-1 at least and without our abilities to switch like we did we never would have gotten to that point.”
Sophomore defensive specialist Brittany Jandasek made her return to the court this weekend after recovering from surgery. Jandasek led the Chargers with 15 digs against Drury on Friday. As Jandasek changed into the libero jersey, senior Jenalle Beaman returned to the front row to play some offense, racking up eight kills on the weekend.
Senior Jordan Denmark also improved this weekend as she was pulled off the bench to slam four kills against Truman. Junior Sam Siddall also came up clutch for the Chargers.
“In two huge pressure situations, Sam Siddall came in and executed to a tee,” Gravel said. “Against Rockhurst she came in and gave us a chance to win, dead-cold off the bench, then against Drury she had some quality contacts also that allowed us to put them away.”
Gravel said there’s no telling what lineup will emerge as the best option for the weekend. The Chargers will hit the road to take on Grand Valley on Friday at 7 p.m. and Ferris State on Saturday at 5 p.m.
“They’re all pretty solid matches but I think we’re excited for them because we just played three solid matches,” Gravel said. “We had lots of compliments from opposing coaches from both sides of the conferences and officials too, saying ‘Wow, you’ve got another strong Hillsdale team here,’ and yes, I think we do.”
