Freshman Grace Drake jumps to hit ball
Courtesy | Hillsdale Athletic Department
The Hillsdale volleyball team swept both its games in Kentucky, defeating Kentucky Wesleyan College and Thomas More University Oct. 3-4. The following week the Chargers suffered a 3-0 defeat from rival University of Findlay Oct. 10 but beat Tiffin University the next day to place them 6-7 overall and 4-3 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
The Chargers won all three sets against Kentucky Wesleyan. Starting slow in the first set, they eventually got to an 11-5 lead, fighting their way to a 25-18 victory. In the second set, the Chargers trailed at the start but rallied to a 25-21 win. The third set was tight the whole way through, each team trading the lead until the Panthers had a 23-22 advantage. But the Chargers took over the match at the very end with three straight points, including back-to-back kills from senior Adi Sysum, ending the game 25-23.
Defeating Thomas More in a 25-18, 25-16, 25-23 victory gave Hillsdale their third win in a row and handed the Saints their first loss in the G-MAC this season.
During the game against the Saints, the Chargers benefited from the return of sophomore Ellie Fles, who had been off the court since their opening game against Anderson University. Fles led Hillsdale with 11 kills and 10 digs against the Saints.
“Last weekend it felt really good to be back out on the court again,” Fles said. “I wanted to take aggressive swings on the balls my teammates set up for me and that paid off.”
According to junior Emory Braswell, the Chargers played well as a team during their weekend in Kentucky.
“The energy in Kentucky was great,” Braswell said. “We were playing together as one unit, which is what we have been emphasizing. Everyone took care of their job, and although we did get in a couple of ruts, we were able to recover quickly and finish both games in three sets.”
The University of Findlay, now ranked 25th in Division II, defeated Hillsdale 3-0. The Chargers put up a tough fight in their home court but couldn’t keep up with the Oilers offense, losing the first set 25-15, the second set 25-17, and the third set 25-22.
Assistant volleyball coach Maddie Kanclerz said Findlay has been Hillsdale’s biggest rival since entering the G-MAC and is always a tough team to play. According to Kanclerz, this weekend’s game against Findlay exposed the way Hillsdale receives the other team’s serves.
“They did a great job of exploiting some of our weaknesses or things that we’re working on,” Kanclerz said. “So they gave us a lot of opportunities to work on those things. For example, they are a super tough serving team, so they went after our serve receive — and we did okay with it — but it gave us a great opportunity to work on that and exemplify that.”
To end the weekend, the Chargers swept Tiffin in a 25-22, 25-19, 25-21 victory. The Chargers were trailing 9-4 in the first set but seized control with eight kills from Fles, and sophomore Caroline Lanicek gave them their 25-22 set victory with four kills. In the second set, the Chargers never trailed past a 1-1 tie, ending with a 25-19 victory. The Chargers had control over the majority of the third set with 20 kills, winning the set 25-21.
Fles got Hillsdale 21 kills throughout the match, along with 13 digs and two service aces. Lanicek chipped in nine kills, and Sysum added eight kills.
Fles said that the Chargers’ loss against Findlay made the team more dedicated to win the next game.
“I think our loss on Friday made us even more hungry to play and get a win on Saturday for each other,” Fles said.
Head coach Chris Gravel said the Chargers are excited to play opponents that aren’t in the same conference, and are going to work hard to face them in the upcoming weekend.
“We’re gonna work hard,” Gravel said. “We’ve got our opponents, and they’re not in our conference so we’re going to watch some film on them, and then get better as a team.”
The Chargers will take on the University of Missouri – St. Louis and Wayne State University Oct. 17, as well as an opponent yet to be announced Oct. 18. Both teams on Saturday are in a different conference than Hillsdale with Missouri in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and Wayne State in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
