In recent years, the Hillsdale College softball team has been redefining what success looks like for the program.
That heightened level of both accomplishments and expectations continued in the 2024 season, as the Chargers had their most successful regular season in over 30 years and finished with a 34-14 record as well as a runner-up finish in Great Midwest Athletic Conference play.
The 34 victories in 2024 were the most by a Chargers softball team since the 37 the Chargers won in the 1991 regular season, while Hillsdale put up 30 or more wins in a season for the fourth straight campaign, after having just four 30-plus win seasons total prior to 2021.
To put that record together, Hillsdale reeled off win streaks of 14 and nine games, closing the regular season with nine straight victories in G-MAC play to finish with a 20-4 conference record and a top two-finish for the fourth-straight season in the league.
Key for Hillsdale was a dominant pitching staff with a pair of ace-level talents in junior Joni Russell and senior Erin Kapteyn. The pair along with an assist from sophomore Mackenzi Maxson combined to lead the G-MAC in staff ERA with a 1.91, the second-straight season the Chargers topped the conference in that statistic.
Both Russell and Kapteyn had milestone seasons for the Chargers, as Russell broke both the Hillsdale and G-MAC records for career strikeouts over the course of the campaign, finishing the season with 659. Kapteyn, meanwhile, finished just short of Hillsdale's single-season shutouts record with eight in 2024 and finished her career in the top 10 at Hillsdale in virtually every significant career pitching statistic. Both players earned All-G-MAC honors and Russell was an All-Region honoree as well.
At the plate, sophomore Maggie Olaveson had a breakout season for the ages in 2024, leading the team in virtually every offensive category while hitting .378. Her 13 home runs in 2024 rank third all-time at Hillsdale and were only exceeded by past All-Americans Jessica Guertin (2010) and Sam Catron (2021), while her .736 slugging percentage ranked fifth for a single-season in Hillsdale history.
Olaveson's power surge was emblematic of a team-wide rise for the Chargers in 2024. Hillsdale's 37 home runs tied the program record for a single season, with junior Hannah Hoverman's eight also breaking into the top 10 all-time for a single season. Senior McKenna Eichholz finished her career with All-G-MAC honors for the second-straight season as well, while fellow departing graduates Grace Wallner and Hailey Holtman also made critical impacts for the Chargers.
Hillsdale loses several key players who made multi-year impacts in Kapteyn, Eichholz, Wallner and Holtman, but has the talent to be a 30-plus win team and contender again next season, with Russell and Maxson returning on the mound and power hitters Olaveson, Hoverman and Emma Vis at the plate, as well as talented underclassmen Taylor Lewis, Sydney Davis and Emma Sather. A big recruiting class could provide immediate reinforcements for the Chargers as well.