2012 Charger Volleyball Yearbook
2012 GLIAC volleyball preseason poll
2012 AVCA Division II Top 25 poll
Link for webcasts from the Concorida-St. Paul tournament
Live stats for the Concordia-St. Paul tournament
August 27, 2012 – The Hillsdale College volleyball team has ruled its conference with an iron fist over the past three seasons. The program became the first in GLIAC history to win three consecutive GLIAC Tournament championships, and last year,enjoyed its best season ever, winning the Midwest Regional title and making it all the way to the NCAA Division II Final Four. But that was last year.
It's now 2012, and a new era is being ushered in, not only for the Chargers, but for GLIAC volleyball in general. The challenge now facing head coach Chris Gravel and his youthful squad is carrying on the incredible level of success it's achieved over the past six years.
Hillsdale opens the new season playing in a tournament hosted by five-time defending NCAA Division II National champion Concordia St.-Paul, not far from Minneapolis, Minnesota. While there, the Chargers will face three teams ranked in the AVCA Division II Top 25 poll, including the host Golden Bears (No. 1), Southwest Minnesota State (No. 6) and BYU-Hawaii (No. 20), in addition to a strong Regis progam.
Links for live stats and webcast information for the Concordia-St. Paul tournament are located at the top of this article.
More locally, the 2012 GLIAC Volleyball Preseason Poll was released Monday morning, and conference coaches picked the Chargers to finish second overall for the upcoming season. Although the GLIAC preseason poll was presented in a "one-conference" format, the North and South Division standings format will be maintained, with the Chargers moving to the North Division. However, the GLIAC Tournament will be decided on a 1-8 seed basis regardless of divisional standings. One interesting note from the preseason poll, is that Hillsdale's "scheduling pod," which includes Ferris State, Grand Valley State and Northwood, represent four (with the Chargers) of the top seven teams overall in the poll, clearly making Hillsdale's pod the most difficult, according to the preseason poll.
The Chargers and Bulldogs split the 2011 GLIAC regular season championship, each finishing with an 18-1 conference record. Ferris State was picked by the GLIAC coaches as the favorite heading into the new season. The top five in the preseason poll are rounded out by Grand Valley State, Saginaw Valley State and Wayne State. A link for the entire conference preseason poll can be found at the top portion of this article.
Hillsdale lost seven seniors, three All-Americans among them, to graduation following the 31-3 2011 season. In their place are seven very talented, but inexperienced freshmen, who will remember their first college volleyball experience as one where they will be tested by the very best in all of NCAA Division II. Since 2009, Hillsdale is 49-5 in the GLIAC and 60-5 overall since 2010.
The most experienced player back on the team is senior middle hitter Lauren Grover (pictured). Other starter-type players back are juniors Caitlin Kopmeyer, Bekah Draves and Sydney Lenhart. Sophomores like Alexis Waugh, Bailey Lindner and Meagan McPhetridge also figure to play much bigger roles on this year's team.