The Hillsdale College volleyball team stepped onto the court for the first time in over a year this past weekend, dominating the competition in two back-to-back three-set sweeps.
On Friday the Chargers beat Trevecca University 25-20, 25-10, and 25-18. Next, on Saturday, they beat Kentucky Wesleyan 25-15, 25-20, and 25-15. This pair of home-court wins solidified their 12th place national ranking, bringing them one step closer to the G-MAC championship.
“We were expecting to win, but we were expecting to have to work for it,” head coach Christopher Gravel said. “I worked multiple lineups to never let my team get too comfortable, because that’s what we’re trying to do – we’re training to be comfortable in the uncomfortable.”
Gravel said that the team has been practicing at a very high level in practice, and that all they need to do is transfer that directly into the game.
“Every drill that we do, no matter how many times we do it, just making it intentional matters,” Gravel said. “It has to mean something even though you’ve done it 100 or 1000 times. Everything’s got to be intentional, no matter how routine.”
Every dressed player competed this past weekend, an occurrence that doesn’t always happen.
“I think everyone on the team played a great game, literally because we had every one of our eligible players in at one point,” senior Madie Schider said. “It was great to see the freshmen have a taste of a collegiate match and be able to play with every one of my teammates. I know I can count on the people by my side no matter the situation.”
Junior Karoline Shelton received the first G-MAC Offensive Athlete of the Week award of the season, which is the second time she has won this award.
“I think I competed well, but I had a lot of people backing me up,” Shelton said. “I think overall, we didn’t play our best, but I think what really kept us in the lead and kept us above is that we all had fun playing together and just getting back into the sport. Even though we would make a bunch of errors, we were able to bounce back really quickly.”
The experience of playing another team rather than themselves revealed what the team needs to focus on, Shelton said.
“I think this weekend helped us realize what our weak points were in our play, and so that’s really something that we were able to hone in on practice this week going forward,” Shelton said. “With each game passing, we’ll be able to figure it out more to be able to really hone in on those weaknesses and up our game in ways that we wouldn’t have thought if we were just practicing with ourselves.”
The team’s 2-0 standing is bringing an energy that will affect every team in the region, Gravel said.
“These matches were just our first games, which I think helped us prepare for what’s to come,” Schider said. “These matches affect our record and help us have some drive, but having a winning record makes every team we play want to beat us even more.”
Although it’s early in the season, the two upcoming matches still greatly affect the team’s outlook on the season. Hillsdale will travel to Ohio to compete against Malone University at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29, and Walsh University at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30.
“History has it whenever they play us at their place, they play their best match of the year,” Gravel said. “We always have a hard time beating them on their floor because Walsh is really the next best team. This weekend could decide if we’re going to be able to host a conference tournament.”
The livestream for the matches can be found on Hillsdale’s athletics website.
To secure tickets for games, visit https://hillsdale.universitytickets.com 24 hours before the event’s start time. Tickets will be $5 and there will be a capacity limit of 250 spectators. A certain number of seats will be reserved for families of student-athletes and coaches, as well as Hillsdale College students.
