For a short time, Saturday's volleyball match between the Chargers and Tiffin University looked like it might be an unpleasant repeat of Friday night's match.
But the Hillsdale team that came out in set five refused to let that happen.
Playing with energy and toughness in that final set, Hillsdale managed to top the host Dragons 3-2 Saturday afternoon at Tiffin's Gilmour Center. The win improves the Chargers to 9-11 overall and 7-6 in GLIAC play. The team takes on Findlay on the road at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The first four sets featured the exact amount of points between the teams, with the Chargers - like they did Friday - taking a 2-0 lead with wins of 25-21 and 27-25. The Dragons played with a ton of heart in coming back to win sets three and four by scores of 25-21 and 26-24, evening up the match at two.
Friday night, Hillsdale coughed up a 2-0 lead and lost to Ohio Dominican. But a repeat performance was not going to happen, as the Chargers won a decisive fifth set by a score of 15-7.
Junior Haylee Booms had an outstanding match, leading the team with 16 kills with a .350 hitting percentage. She also served seven straight points in set five, turning the score from 7-6 to 14-6. Her serves were aggressive, forcing the Dragons to play out of their comfortable offensive positions.
Less than 24 hours after setting a career high in digs, freshman libero Brittany Jandasek easily exceeded that, compiling a career-high 34 digs on the day. That makes her eligible to join the AVCA's 30-dig club. That digs total is the third-highest in a single match in school history, and is a team season-high this year.
Junior Jordan Denmark delivered 12 kills and 21 digs in a fine all-around performance. Junior Emily Wolfert played with energy and intensity, and had 14 kills and 10 digs. Senior Lindsay Kostrzewa had 11 kills and 4 total blocks for the Chargers.
Junior setter Marissa Owen handed out 47 digs and set a new career-high with 2 solo blocks to go along with 5 digs.
Hillsdale forced Tiffin to hit .000 as a team in the fifth set (6 kills, 6 errors). The Chargers have still never lost to the Dragons since Tiffin joined the GLIAC prior to the 2008 season.