The Hillsdale volleyball team beat the Davenport Panthers 3-2 on Sept. 6 and won three of four matches last weekend in the 2022 Charger Invitational.
The Chargers played in matches on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday against the Ferris State Bulldogs, Missouri S&T Miners, Gannon University Golden Knights, and Colorado School of Mines Orediggers.
After starting the season last weekend in a similar manner, winning three of four at the Rockhurst Invitational, head coach Chris Gravel noted the improvement that he has already begun to see.
“We became a little more consistent and we were communicating at a higher level,” Gravel said. “That doesn’t mean we don’t need to be more consistent and have better communication, but that was the noticeable difference to me.”
At the close of the tournament, sophomore Marilyn Popplewell was named Tournament MVP for her performance during the weekend.
“I think it goes to show that our passers and setters were working really hard this weekend in order to give the hitters, including myself, opportunities to score,” Popplewell said. “It also shows how an even attack all around can open things up. Our middles did a great job of pulling blockers in order to give the other pin hitters and me opportunities to put the ball down.”
Gravel emphasized the work that Popplewell has put in leading up to this point which is now beginning to pay off.
“She’s been steadily doing well as we’ve asked her to do several things,” Gravel said. “The game of volleyball is full of errors and failures and you have to be able to recover really quickly, and she’s been working on that and doing a better and better job which showed this weekend.”
The Charger’s overall performance for the weekend remained mostly positive as they posted 3-1 wins in their first two matches followed by a third win at 3-0. Even in their 3-1 loss to the Orediggers, their initial energy to start the match earned them a 25-20 first set victory.
“I think we came out very strong this weekend in all our matches,” Popplewell said. “But, we will need to work on keeping our feet on the gas moving from the first to the second set as there was consistently some let up there this weekend.”
This certainly was a noticeable trend for the Chargers, who took the first set in every match and yet lost three out of four second sets during the weekend. The single second set victory that they were able to secure was in a long 33-31 battle against Gannon.
With the season now fully underway, the new roster has had a chance to play together in several competitive matches and according to assistant coach Taylor Wiese team dynamics are looking good.
“I think we have really good team chemistry,” Wiese said. “They’ve come together really well, in the preseason, and even now.”
After a quick turnaround and victory in a home match Tuesday against the Davenport Panthers, the Chargers now look to begin conference play on Sept. 10 against the Lake Erie Storm at Lake Erie College.
“We’ll be working on understanding matchups and where to put the ball in certain situations,” Gravel said. “In conference play you can obviously spend a lot more time on breaking down a team and attacking the weaknesses and this team just needs to understand that at a high level so we can be successful in it.”
