Home-court advantage has dominated the volleyball series between Hillsdale College and Northern Michigan University over the years. Unfortunately for the Chargers, that was the case once again Friday night.
Hillsdale lost to the host Wildcats 3-0 in a GLIAC North Division matchup that leaves the Chargers at 7-7 in the conference and 15-10 overall. Despite the 3-0 score, all three sets were very tightly played, with NMU winning by scores of 25-19, 25-21 and 25-22.
Hillsdale has one win at Northern Michigan since 2000, that coming in its Final Four year of 2011.
In sets 2 and 3, Hillsdale made late comeback bids, but were too far behind too late in each set to pull even with the Wildcats. Unforced errors plagued the Chargers through the match, as the team committed five serving errors, five serve reception errors and were whistled for six ball handling errors. Plays like those are magnified even more in a match as closely played as this one was.
Northern Michigan outhit Hillsdale by a count of .248 to .138 in the match, and had four more total blocks as a team.
Sophomore Kara Vyletel played well offensively for the Chargers, leading the team with 15 kills and a .333 hitting percentage. Sophomore Paige VanderWall added 9 kills and 6 digs, while senior Erin Holsinger added 7 kills. The rest of the Charger lineup combined for 5 kills in the match.
Freshman Taylor Wiese led the defense with 21 digs, and sophomore Taylor Bennett had 26 assists.
UP NEXT: Hillsdale faces Michigan Tech at 3 p.m. Saturday.
PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Vyletel