The Hillsdale College volleyball team completed one of those once-a-season comeback victories Friday night.
After spotting Sagianw Valley State University a 2-0 lead, Hillsdale rebounded to post perhaps its biggest conference win of the season, 3-2 Friday night in University Center. The Chargers are now 13-10 overall and 8-4 in the GLIAC. The team stays on the road Saturday, closing out its regular season home schedule at Lake Superior State.
The Cardinals were flying high and blocking the Chargers out of the gym in the match's first two sets. Even though the scores were close - 25-23 and 25-20 - SVSU rarely let go of the lead and had seven blocks as a team int he first set alone.
But the six-minute break between the second and third sets seemed to do wonders for the Chargers. The team started covering defensively much better, and the offense's efficiency ticked up several notches. Hillsdale easily beat SVSU in the third and fourth sets by scores of 25-13 and 25-18, respectively.
The Cardinals jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the deciding fifth set, but senior Ciatlin Kopmeyer stepped forward and made plays all over the court to lead Hillsdale to a 12-4 finish to the match.
Kopmeyer had a .400 hitting percentage, leading the team with 12 kills and no hitting errors. She also had a team-high 20 digs and contributed five block assists for the winning team. She had five kills and two block assists in the fifth set, directly contributing to seven of the team's 15 points in the set.
Redshirt-freshman outside hitter Sam Siddall turned in the finest performance of her young career, contributing a career-high eight kills, six coming in the fourth set. Her .438 hitting percentage was even more impressive than her kill total.
Sophomore Marissa Owen handed out 35 assists, the second-highest total of her career. Sophomore Haylee Booms added eight kills and seven block assists, while sophomore Emily Wolfert added 10 kills to the Charger attack.