The longest road trip of the regular season resulted in two more 3-0 sweeps for the #13 Hillsdale College volleyball team.
The Chargers finished off this weekend's trip the right way with a 3-0 victory over Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro Saturday afternoon. The win makes Hillsdale 19-3 overall and 8-0 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
Hillsdale won the sets by scores of 25-15, 25-13 and 25-18. The Chargers took early leads in all three sets, and aside from one scoring run by the Panthers in set three, the team never trailed for the entirety of the match.
Led by the deadly serving of senior libero Taylor Wiese, Hillsdale finished off set 2 on a 10-0 run, making a statement after the Panthers had scored four straight to make it a 15-13 score. Wiese registered a season-high 5 service aces in the match, four of them coming in that 10-0 run to end the second set.
Wiese also had 27 digs, averaging an incredible nine digs per set. By comparison, she currently leads the G-MAC averaging a shade over six digs per set. Another outstanding performance by one of Division II's top defensive players.
Like Friday's win at Trevecca, offensive balance was a notable part of this match for Hillsdale. Three players - Emily Lachmann, Karoline Shelton and Allyssa Van Wienen - all had between 9 and 11 kills. Lachmann had a .348 hitting percentage and played with strength after sitting out Friday night's win. Shelton collected 9 kills and 9 digs in another nice two-way performance. Van Wienen was unstoppable all weekend, kind of like she has all season, with 11 kills, no errors and a .524 hitting percentage.
Junior Madie Schider chipped in with 16 digs, averaging more than five per set, her most productive defensive match in a couple weeks.
Junior setter Lindsey Mertz had 34 assists and 4 digs and did another good job of keeping the defense guessing with her sets.
PHOTO: Todd Lancaster