Box score
Friday night's dramatic 3-2 win by the Hillsdale College volleyball team was memorable in many ways.
The Chargers were looking to get back on track after back-to-back 3-0 losses in west Michigan last weekend.
The team was playing at home for the first time in 20 days, in front of a Halloween-decorated crowd of more than 500 fans.
And the coach was looking to add another milestone in a career full of them.
All matters were accomplished.
The Chargers rallied from a 2-1 deficit to top a resilient Ohio Dominican squad 3-2 in front of a big crowd at Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena. Hillsdale is now 16-6 on the season and 8-4 in the GLIAC.
Head coach Chris Gravel won match number 400 in his career, an honor just two current GLIAC head coaches can claim. Gravel got to this milestone by preaching mental toughness and accountability to his teams, and this year's Charger squad has shown abundances of both.
The Panthers (12-12, 5-7) blitzed Hillsdale early in the match, taking a 1-0 lead after a one-sided win in set one. Freshman Paige VanderWall was nearly perfect in set two for Hillsdale, generating 8 kills on 9 attempts as the Chargers tied the match with a 25-19 win.
Hillsdale committed 3 errors that made up ODU's final 3 points in a 25-22 Panther win in set three. But as set four wore on, Hillsdale's conditioning and toughness seemed to become more and more apparent. The Chargers led 8-7, but went on a 10-4 run to open up a seven-point lead in an eventual 25-19 win in that fourth set.
The momentum carried over into set five, when the Chargers took quick command of the set and only trailed when it was 1-0.
Senior setter Marissa Owen set a career-high with 19 digs, and handed out 35 assists to an offense that got better as the match went along. Hillsdale hit .500 (11 kills, 0 errors, 22 attempts) in the fifth set, compared to .154 for the Panthers.
The match featured a number of long rallies and unlikely defensive plays by both teams. ODU in particular, passed with confidence and covered the court effectively, making it tough for the Hillsdale hitters to find open court.
A total of nine players in the match had 10 or more kills, an extraordinarily high number for any match, even a five-setter.
VanderWall led the Hillsdale offense with an outstanding stat line of 15 kills, a .333 hitting percentage, 6 digs and 4 block assists.
Senior Emily Wolfert had another terrific match all the way around with a double-double that featured 11 kills and 11 digs. Freshman Kara Vyletel had 12 kills, 3 service aces and 12 digs, while junior Erin Holsinger had 11 kills and 6 block assists. Senior Haylee Booms answered the bell big-time in the fifth set, finishing with 10 kills.
Sophomore libero Brittany Jandasek led the back line with 19 digs, while senior Jenalle Beaman had 16 digs. Freshman Taylor Bennett notched a double-double with 22 assists and 14 digs for the Chargers.
But the night will be most remembered by Gravel, who puts himself in elite company among Division II coaches nationwide with his 400th career win.
PHOTO CREDIT: Kadie Lowery
UP NEXT: Hillsdale hosts Tiffin Saturday at 2:00.