The funny role momentum can play in the sport of volleyball was on display once again at Northwood University Wednesday night.
The Charger volleyball team got off to a very rough start, but shook it off and came away with a 3-2 victory over the Timberwolves in Riepma Arena, opening a three-match, five-day road trip on a good note.
The win clinches a winning regular season for Hillsdale, now 15-9 overall and 7-6 in the GLIAC.
Northwood jumped out to a 21-4 lead in the first set of the match, a margin rarely seen in the sport regardless of one team's skill level compared to the other. The Timberwolves were hitting better than .500 deep into the set and could seemingly do no wrong, while the Chargers struggled running a basic offensive play.
However, late in that first set, Hillsdale gathered itself and rediscovered an offensive flow. Although Northwood took that opening set by a decisive 25-14 margin, the Chargers scored 10 of the final 14 points of the set, and the momentum carried over.
Hillsdale made its biggest improvements on defense as the match wore on, frustrating the Timberwolves' hitters with its ability to dig up attack attempts. The Chargers captured sets 2 and 3 by scores of 25-18 and 25-20.
Northwood responded with a 25-21 win in set 4, sending this to a fifth set, an area where the Chargers have been up and down all year. But this fifth set would exist nowhere but up for Hillsdale.
Led by the hot left arm of sophomore Paige VanderWall, the Chargers took a commanding 8-2 lead as the teams switched sides, and Hillsdale never trailed, prevailing 15-7 to clinch the match.
After hitting -.086 as a team in the opening set, Hillsdale finished strong, with a .400 hitting percentage (9 kills, 1 error) in the final set.
VanderWall just keeps upping the level of her play, and led the Chargers with 18 kills against just 1 error in the victory. It was by far the most number of kills, coupled with the fewest number of errors, she's had in her career. She did more than just generate offense too, picking up 10 digs and 4 total blocks in the match.
She was one of five Charger players with 10 or more digs, a season-high for the team.
Freshman libero Taylor Wiese led the team with 23 digs, while junior Jackie Langer added 11. VanderWall, Taylor Bennett and Kara Vyletel each had 10 digs for Hillsdale.
Senior middle hitter Erin Holsinger played her second straight strong match, finishing with 13 kills and a team-high 7 total blocks. Vyletel tacked on 10 kills while senior Sam Siddall made an excellent contribution in limited playing time with 5 kills.
Bennett had 49 assists to pace the Hillsdale offense.
UP NEXT: Hillsdale plays at Northern Michigan at 7:00 Friday night.
PHOTO CREDIT: Todd Lancaster