Friday night's win came the hard way for the Hillsdale College volleyball team.
The Chargers dug themselves a 2-0 deficit on the road to Malone University, but rallied back to win the non-conference match 3-2 over the Pioneers. The win, Hillsdale's fourth in a row, makes the team 11-2 overall.
The first two sets were won by Malone 25-20 and 25-22, sets that featured an unusually high number of errors in all aspects of the game by the Chargers. Just six of Malone's 25 points came via kills in the first set. Hillsdale was hitting .060 through two sets of the match.
But the Chargers immediately found their groove starting in set 3, seizing control immediately, eventually winning decisively 25-15. A 12-3 run in the middle of set 4 helped flip momentum away from the Pioneers and resulted in a 25-18 Hillsdale win to tie the match.
Set 5 was tightly played, with Hillsdale holding a 10-9 lead. But the Chargers finished the match scoring five of the final seven points, punctuated by a kill from sophomore Paige VanderWall, ending a stressful, if ultimately successful road match.
The Chargers held the Pioneers to a hitting percentage of .083 over the final three sets of the match, which helped Hillsdale overcome 33 hitting errors and 12 service errors as a team. Hillsdale had 17 more kills as a team in the match, an unusually lopsided statistic in a five-set match.
Sophomore outside hitter Kara Vyletel stepped up big-time in the final three sets of the match and led all players with 16 kills. That's the second-highest kill total in a match in her career.
VanderWall was strong throughout and pounded out 13 kills with a .303 hitting percentage. Junior Jackie Langer (9 kills) and senior Erin Holsinger (8 kills) also keyed the offense for Hillsdale.
Sophomore setter Taylor Bennett piled up 52 assists, many of them in pressure situations after the team was down 2-0. Bennett also led the team with 4 block assists.
Langer set a new season-high with 22 digs, while Vyletel notched another double-double with 12 digs to go along with her 16 kills. Freshman Taylor Wiese added 14 digs in the five-setter.
UP NEXT: Hillsdale takes on Walsh in a GLIAC showdown at 2 p.m. Saturday.
PHOTO CREDIT: Carly Gouge