SATURDAY RECAP
Box Score: Hillsdale 3, Truman 2
Friday afternoon, the Charger volleyball team made a huge comeback from down 2-0 to nearly win a match against a very good GLVC team.
Saturday afternoon, the script was the same, but the ending different.
Hillsdale rallied from an 0-2 deficit to top Truman 3-2 in a thrilling match at the Midwest Region Crossover Tournament, held at the Great Lakes Center in Aurora, Illinois. The Chargers are now 15-4 overall on the season. The win was also number 399 in the career of head coach Chris Gravel.
Truman won the first two sets 27-25 and 25-22. In that first set, the Chargers had two set points, but could not put the Trojans away. Hillsdale bounced back to post wins of 27-25, 25-21 and 15-10 to close out the victory.
Junior Erin Holsinger stepped up in that fifth set, slamming home five of her career-high 16 kills for Hillsdale. She had a .353 hitting percentage, and rose to the occasion when her team needed her the most.
Senior Emily Wolfert's 19 kills were a match-high and the second-most she's had in her career. She had a .457 hitting percentage to go along with 5 service aces, 5 digs and 3 block assists in an extraordinary all-around effort. It was a banner weekend for Wolfert, who celebrated her 22nd birthday Friday, the same day she recorded her 1,000th career kill.
For the second time in three matches, senior setter Marissa Owen set a season-high for assists, this time dishing out 44 in the win. She added 12 digs, 2 service aces, 2 block assists and had the match-clinching kill to close out set five.
Three other players cracked double figures in digs: Taylor Bennett, Brittany Jandasek and Jenalle Beaman. Beaman stepped up offensively in the match as well, with 6 kills, several of them in set four, which set the stage for Hillsdale's comeback.
Senior Haylee Booms had 10 kills and 6 digs for the Chargers, who head to Grand Valley State and Ferris State next weekend.
FRIDAY RECAP
Box Score: #9 Rockhurst 3, Hillsdale 2
Box Score: Hillsdale 3, Drury 0
The opening match of the 2015 Midwest Regional Crossover Tournament was a classic, as the Charger volleyball team nearly rallied for an upset of the No. 9-ranked team in the nation.
Hillsdale lost a 3-2 decision to Rockhurst, the top seed in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. After losing the first two sets 25-11 and 25-21, the Chargers came back to post set wins of 26-24 and 25-22 before falling in the tightly played fifth set 15-13.
In the third set of the match, senior Emily Wolfert recorded the fourth of her 12 kills in the match, eclipsing 1,000 kills for her career. She is just the eighth player in school history to move past the one thousand kill barrier, and the first Hillsdale College player to do so since Ashlee Crowder and Clara Leutheuser did it in 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Freshman Paige VanderWall put down a career-high 19 kills in the match, a single-match high for any Charger player this season. She paired that with an impressive .471 hitting percentage, an extremely efficient percentage for someone with 34 attempts in one match.
Wolfert and junior Erin Holsinger each picked up 12 kills while senior Haylee Booms had 11 kills. Kyra Rodi and Kara Vyletel each contributed 7 kills.
Senior setter Marissa Owen handed out a season-high 37 assists. Senior Jenalle Beaman led the team with 16 digs, while sophomore Brittany Jandasek made her season debut with 12 digs.
The Chargers came back later Friday recovered from their loss, and rediscovered their clutch gene in a 3-0 win over the Drury Panthers in the third session of matches.
Hillsdale won the match by scores of 25-20, 25-23 and 25-21.
VanderWall continued her huge day with a team-high 10 kills in the win.
Hillsdale cut down on the errors in this match, committing just 11 as a team, hitting .308 for the match. Booms and Wolfert had identical stat lines, with 8 kill and only 1 error each. Holsinger also had 8 kills while VanderWall had 2 solo blocks and 3 block assists.
Owen had 25 assists and 9 digs while Jandasek led the back line with 15 digs. Serving was a big asset for Hillsdale in the match, as the team had 9 aces, led by 3 each from VanderWall and freshman Taylor Bennett.
PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Vyletel