As statements go, there aren't many that could be stronger than the one made by the Hillsdale College volleyball team Saturday night.
In just 43 minutes, the Chargers swept the G-MAC East Division champion Walsh University Cavaliers 3-0 in the regular season finale at the Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena.
The win finishes off a perfect conference regular season for Hillsdale, who is 22-6 overall and 19-0 in the G-MAC. The Chargers are the #1 overall seed in next week's conference tournament, and open postseason play versus Ursuline at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6.
This was the most lopsided win for the Chargers in years, who held the Cavaliers to 25 total points in the three-set match. Hillsdale won the sets by scores of 25-8, 25-8 and 25-9. A breakdown of the box score accurately reflects how one-sided this match was.
Hillsdale had a team hitting percentage of .478 in the match, a season-best. The team racked up 37 kills against just five hitting errors. Walsh had a team hitting percentage of -.096, picking up 18 kills as a team versus 26 hitting errors. The Chargers hit .571, .400 and .462 in each of the three sets. The Cavs had a negative team hitting percentage in all three sets.
Many of the Cavs' hitting errors came as a result of a dominant block put forth by Hillsdale. Led by six block assists by junior Hannah Gates, Hillsdale had 9.0 blocks as a team compared to 2.0 for Walsh.
The serving game also heavily favored the Chargers, who had nine service aces – four coming from sophomore setter Lindsey Mertz.
Before the match, Hillsdale's extraordinary senior class was recognized in a ceremony. Paige VanderWall (9 kills, 4 digs), Taylor Bennett (3 digs) and Kara Vyletel (9 kills, 1 block assist) all played sharp for Hillsdale.
Freshman Karoline Shelton has been coming on strong and had 8 kills, 6 digs and 2 block assists. Sophomore middle hitter Allyssa Van Wienen had 7 kills, 3 digs, a solo block and 2 block assists.
Mertz handed out 31 assists and had 3 digs and 3 block assists. Junior libero Taylor Wiese was locked in as well, with 10 digs and 2 service aces.
PHOTO: Todd Lancaster