As volleyball teams across the GLIAC jumped into conference competition this weekend, there was a lot of fluctuation in the level of play. That applied to the Hillsdale College volleyball team, as well, which emerged from its home-opening weekend with one win and one loss.
The three top-ranked teams in the GLIAC North Division — according to the Coaches’ Preseason Poll — gathered this weekend in the Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena. The Hillsdale College volleyball team defeated No. 3 ranked Grand Valley on Friday night in a heated 3-2 match then fell to No.1 Ferris State in a 3-0 sweep on Saturday afternoon. After the opening weekend, the Chargers are 1-1 in the GLIAC and 7-2 overall.
“There was a lot of fluctuation in the performances this weekend,” head coach Chris Gravel said. “A lof of the teams are evenly matched this year. There are a lot of good teams across the board.”
The Chargers started Friday’s match with double wins, picking up set one and two with 25-22 and 25-20 scores respectively. The Lakers, however, stepped up their game, taking sets three and four with 25-22 and 25-13 wins.
“We handled them quite easily, and we played quite well in set two. Then we had the break,” Gravel said. “I believe the team thought that because we beat them so well in set two that they would just go away. That was not the case. After losing set three, the team’s mentality was that we should have been done by then, and so we didn’t show up for game four.”
Set five was tight and heated — the teams were never separated by more than two points.
The Chargers dug deep in the end, emerging with a 15-13 win.
Sophomore outside hitter Kara Vyletel pounded her career-high 18th kill for the Chargers on Friday night to cap the match. Vyletel said it was during set five that the Chargers remembered who wanted it more.
“We needed to get to business, because after the first two sets, we were like, ‘We’ve got it in the bag,’” Vyletel said. “We underestimated them, and they came out strong. It just took us that long to realize that we needed to fight for it and work for it, and that we wanted it.”
Sophomore rightside hitter Paige VanderWall had a shining performance on Friday, slamming a career-high 22 kills against the Lakers — the fourth most kills in a single match in school history. Sophomore setter Taylor Bennett recorded 62 assists on Friday night, soaring past her previous career-high.
Senior middle hitter Erin Holsinger had three solo blocks, three block assists, and 10 kills to help her team beat rival Grand Valley in a regular season match for the first time in her career.
“It was a pretty crazy feeling,” Holsinger said. “Kyra and I were personally super stoked because we’d never experienced that before.”
After taking down the Lakers, the Chargers looked forward to Saturday afternoon’s match against the equally big and strong Bulldogs. This time, the Chargers weren’t able to match up.
Ferris dominated the first set, taking advantage of Hillsdale errors to clutch a 25-16 win. Both the second and third sets were more competitive —the teams were tied after 20 points in each set.
Both times, however, the Bulldogs edged their way to the win.
A 6-0 run gave the Bulldogs the win in set two, after the Chargers had reached a 20-19 lead. In set three, Langer’s service ace gave the Chargers a 21-20 lead, but the Bulldogs scored the final five points of the match to grab the win.
“The whole match there was a lack of energy and drive,” Vyletel said. “Everyone wanted to be there, but they were frustrated and didn’t know how to turn that into the drive and desire to perform. We had a fear of failure rather than a will to win.”
On Saturday, Grand Valley went on to beat Northwood University, the team that had defeated Ferris University the night before. By Sunday, all four teams — including the Chargers — had played one strong match and one weak match.
The Chargers, however, plan to use the upcoming week of practice to move past Saturday’s sweep. For the fifth time in Gravel’s 21-year career at Hillsdale, his team will play at home during the Homecoming Weekend.
The Chargers will host Ohio Dominican University on Friday night at 7 p.m. and Lake Erie University on Saturday at 2 p.m. Both opponents stand with 1-0 records after the opening weekend.
Gravel said Ohio Dominican has pushed the Chargers into five-set matches in seasons past, and competition against Lake Erie is personal: Lake Erie head coach Kevin Foeman used to serve as an assistant coach at Hillsdale. On top of that, he recruited Shannon Holsinger — Erin Holsinger’s younger sister — as a freshman on his squad this season.
Vyletel said her team is ready to win this weekend.
“We’re all coming out of it and learning how to to deal with the loss. We’re ready to take that and run with it and not let it happen ever again,” Vyletel said. “Everyone is really motivated to prepare and dominate this weekend.”
