An unforgettable season came to an end Saturday night for the Hillsdale College volleyball team.
Playing Rockhurst University in the Midwest Regional Final, the Chargers ran into a wall of a team that executed close to perfection in a 3-0 decision, giving the Hawks the regional championship.
Hillsdale's 2019 season comes to an end with a 28-4 overall record. Rockhurst advances to next week's Elite Eight, hosted by Metro State University in Denver.
The Chargers led early in all three sets, but the Hawks simply executed at a very high level in all phases of the game – serve receive passing, setting, defense, hitting – pick a category, it was clicking for them throughout the match. Rockhurst won the sets by scores of 25-19, 25-22 and 25-17.
Junior middle hitter Allyssa Van Wienen did her part, playing a dominating match in the front row with a team-high 16 kills and a .519 hitting percentage. She delivered six kills on her seven attempts in the first set, and was getting hard, clean swings at the ball.
Van Wienen, senior libero Taylor Wiese and sophomore outside hitter Karoline Shelton were all named to the All-Midwest Region Tournament Team.
Wiese, playing her final collegiate match, finished with 13 digs, still finding a way to anchor the defense despite Rockhurst angling its offense as far away from her as it could get. Shelton matched Wiese's 13 digs to lead Hillsdale.
Senior Emily Lachmann delivered a strong performance in her collegiate finale with 9 kills. Junior setter Lindsey Mertz had 37 assists while freshman Megan Kolp had 8 kills for Hillsdale.
PHOTO: Steve Woltmann