The University of Findlay volleyball team was off to an excellent start to the 2014 season. The Oilers played tough competition in its first tournament, and ripped off four straight wins to open the GLIAC schedule.
Then, it ran head long into the freight train now known as the Hillsdale College volleyball team.
The Chargers played at an extremely high level in its first-place showdown with the Oilers Tuesday night at Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena, taking a hold of first place in the GLIAC South Division with a decisive 3-0 sweep. Hillsdale is now 6-3 overall and 5-0 in the GLIAC, while Findlay falls to 4-1 in conference play.
The two teams played the first set according to their respective records, with neither team able to establish much momentum. Hillsdale edged Findlay 25-23 in the opening set, but from that point, the match was all Chargers.
Hillsdale blew out Findlay to the tune of 25-12 and 25-13 in the final two sets to clinch the match. In the second set, the Chargers put together a 14-0 run to overcome an early deficit. In set 3, the Chargers did it again, going on an 11-1 run to close out the match. Junior Emily Wolfert was the team's server in both of its long scoring runs, making life tough on Findlay's back row players with her tough deliveries over the net.
On offense, the Chargers put together another masterpiece, hitting .394 as a team, putting down 43 kills against just four hitting errors for the entire match. Junior setter Marissa Owen did a brilliant job at spreading the ball around, and finding hitters who had open spots on the opposite side to swing at. Owen picked up 33 assists in the three-set match, and had 5 digs and 3 block assists.
Junior Jordan Denmark has taken her game to a completely new level in this campaign, and she was outstanding once again Tuesday night. She had 11 kills, no errors and a .458 hitting percentage. She had just two digs, but did a terrific job at serve-receive passing, always the first ingredient in a well-run offense.
Sophomore Erin Holsinger (pictured), also had an error-less night attacking, as she came in with 9 kills in 18 attempts (.500) and had one solo block and four block assists. Her quickness helped to negate Findlay's big and strong front row defense.
Junior Haylee Booms matched Holsinger's kill total, and hit .533 for the match. Junior Jenalle Beaman was strong defensively with 10 digs, while freshman libero Brittany Jandasek led the Chargers with 16 digs.
Hillsdale is 13-1 against Findlay since the 2005 GLIAC Tournament Quarterfinals. The last time the Chargers recorded five straight 3-0 sweeps was from Oct. 7-15, 2011.