A dominant defending champion.
Hungry and uncommonly skilled challengers.
The table is set for one of the most exciting G-MAC Volleyball Tournament Final Fours in conference history this weekend in Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena.
Top-seeded Hillsdale has won three straight G-MAC tourney titles and hasn't lost a match to a conference opponent since 2017, making them the odds-on favorite to win a fourth consecutive title.
But they'll be challenged like never before by a Walsh squad that's also ranked in the top 10 in the country, and one of the top pure offensive teams in the conference, fourth-seeded Cedarville, and one of the top pure defensive teams, sixth-seeded Tiffin.
Due to Michigan Department of Health and Human Services orders and G-MAC mandates, only a limited number of fans can attend this weekend's events at Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena, and will be required to wear a mask at all times and practice physical distancing from anyone who is not a member of their household. General Admission tickets will go on sale for each Friday semifinal contest on Thursday, March 11 at 2 p.m. on hillsdale.universitytickets.com. If there are any remaining tickets after the online sale, they will be available for in-person sale at the arena ticket office beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, March 12.
General admission tickets for the Championship game will go on sale at 12 p.m., Saturday, March 13, five hours before the start of the tournament final. Those tickets can also be purchased at hillsdale.universitytickets.com.
If you are unable to attend in person, all games will be livestreamed on the Great Midwest Digital Network. You can find links to live stats and live streams for both semifinals below.
Schedule
#4 Cedarville (9-3, 8-3 G-MAC) vs #1 Hillsdale (14-1, 11-0 G-MAC) | 5 p.m. Friday, March 12 | Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena | Hillsdale, MI (Semifinal #1)
#2 Walsh (11-1, 10-1 G-MAC) vs #6 Tiffin (7-5, 6-5 G-MAC) | 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 12 | Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena | Hillsdale, MI (Semifinal #2)
Semifinal #1 Winner vs Semifinal #2 Winner | 5 p.m. Saturday, March 13 | Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena | Hillsdale, MI (Semifinal #1)
Follow/Watch
Semifinal #1 Live Stats | Semifinal #1 Video | Semifinal #2 Live Stats | Semifinal #2 Video | Tickets
Additional Info
Hillsdale Roster | Walsh Roster | Cedarville Roster | Tiffin Roster | 2021 Hillsdale Stats | 2021 Walsh Stats | 2021 Cedarville Stats | 2021 Tiffin Stats
Players to Watch
Hillsdale: #9 Allyssa Van Wienen, Sr., MH, Grand Rapids, MI/Christian (3rd in G-MAC in hitting %, 8th in K/S, 2nd in B/S, 5th in P/S); #7 Karoline Shelton, Jr., OH, Shawnee, KS/Mission South (4th in G-MAC in K/S, 10th in SA/S, 3rd in P/S); #4 Alli Wiese, Fr., L/DS, Mattawan, MI/Mattawan (2nd in G-MAC in D/S, 1st in SA/S), #8 Maizie Brown, Fr., MH, Portage, MI/Central (4th in G-MAC in Hitting %, 5th in B/S)
Walsh: #7 Hallie Schroeder, Sr., OH, Avon, OH/Avon (9th in G-MAC in K/S); #9 Amber King, Jr., MB, Broadview Heights, OH/Brecksville-Broadview Heights (4th in G-MAC in B/S); #8 Olivia Kearns, So., S, Lexington, OH/Lexington (2nd in G-MAC in A/S); #2 Olivia Maczuzak, Jr., OH, Painesville, OH/Riverside (5th in G-MAC in K/S, 6th in P/S)
Cedarville: #14 Lauren Willow, Sr., MH, Arlington, OH/Arlington (1st in G-MAC in hitting %, 7th in K/S, 10th in B/S, 8th in P/S), #5 Liene Miller, Sr., OH, Westfield, IN/Westfield (2nd in G-MAC in K/S, 2nd in P/S); #17 Haley Goff, Fr., S, Bridgman, MI/Bridgman (1st in G-MAC in A/S); #16 Hannah Willow, So., MB, Arlington, OH/Arlington (1st in G-MAC in B/S)
Tiffin: #8 Sam Fallis, Jr., DS, Toledo, OH/Sylvania Southview (1st in G-MAC in D/S, 2019 2nd team All-G-MAC); #2 Loryn Huffman, Sr., S, McComb, OH/McComb (3rd in G-MAC in A/S, 2019 2nd team All-G-MAC); #5 Grace Schreiber, Sr., MH, Dublin, OH/Bishop Watterson (10th in G-MAC in hitting %, 6th in B/S, 9th in P/S); #18 Danielle Sargent, Fr., MH/RS, Centerville, OH/Centerville (8th in G-MAC in B/S)
Scouting the Contenders
Cedarville: The fourth-seeded Yellow Jackets survived an upset scare from fifth-seeded Ohio Dominican in the quarterfinal, turning the Panthers back by a narrow margin to reach the semifinal round for the first time since the G-MAC expanded in 2017.
Cedarville is perhaps the most dangerous offensive team in the G-MAC, with size at the net and a wide array of experienced hitters, led by returning first-team All-G-MAC seniors Liene Miller and Lauren Willow. Freshman setter Haley Goff has fit right in to the Yellow Jacket attack in her first collegiate season, helping Cedarville sit in second in the conference in kills and hitting percentage.
The Yellow Jacket defense is what kept Cedarville from challenging the top two teams in the conference in the regular season. Cedarville gives up more service aces than any of the other three teams still playing and is middle of the pack in the conference in team digs per set. But given the team's firepower, even a small improvement this weekend could give the Yellow Jackets a real shot at the title.
Cedarville is coached by Greg Smith, in his third year with the program. Smith has led Cedarville to the G-MAC tournament in each of his first two seasons as head coach, and prior to taking the job with the Yellow Jackets, was a head coach at Virginia Tech for five years and Toledo for eight, making four trips to the NCAA Division I tournament with the Rockets.
Walsh: The Cavaliers held off a game challenge from seventh-seeded Trevecca Nazarene to reach their fourth-straight G-MAC semifinal, and as the second seed and one of just two teams to take a set off top-seeded Hillsdale in the regular season, are a real contender for their first-ever tournament title.
Walsh lost two All-G-MAC players to graduation in Lauren Loucks and Justine Coffman, but returned three more all-conference honorees in 2021 in Hallie Schroeder, Amber King and Olivia Kearns. The Cavaliers also have another breakout star in junior Olivia Maczuzak, who is fifth in the G-MAC in kills per set and sixth in points per set.
Walsh's offense is potent, leading the G-MAC in hitting percentage (.256), but the Cavaliers also boast a strong defense, holding opponents to a .134 hitting percentage, finishing with the third-most digs per set, and conceding the fewest aces of any team in the conference.
The Cavaliers are coached by Jayme Plummer, who is entering his second season after leading Walsh to an 18-10 record in 2019. Before coming to Walsh, Plummer was the coach at fellow G-MAC school Ursuline, where he led the Arrows to 45 wins and three G-MAC tournament bids in four seasons.
Tiffin: The 2019 G-MAC runner-up pulled the upset of the tournament so far, beating three-seed Findlay in four sets to return to the conference semis for the second-straight year.
A power-hitting offensive team led by All-American outside hitter Jenna Huffman in 2019, Tiffin changed gears this season with two other key pieces who earned second-team All-G-MAC honors in libero Sam Fallis and setter Loryn Huffman.
Replacing the elder Huffman has been a committee affair, with seniors Grace Schreiber and Alicia Kessler taking the lead for Tiffin's offense. In place of fireworks up front, the Dragons have leaned on one of the G-MAC's best defenses to get back to the semis. Tiffin is second in opponent hitting percentage (.125), second in team digs per set (19.96) and second in aces conceded (0.98) in G-MAC play.
Tiffin is coached by Shauna Hurles, who is in her fourth year as head coach of the Dragons. Hurles has led the Dragons to 19 or more wins in all three of her seasons in charge, and to back-to-back top three finishes in the G-MAC.
Hillsdale: Currently ranked fifth in Division II, Hillsdale captured a fourth-straight G-MAC regular season title this past weekend with a third-straight undefeated run through the conference.
Hillsdale now seeks its fourth-straight G-MAC tournament title, and as the top seed will be tough to upset with a squad that's got a level of depth and talent that few Charger teams have had in head coach Chris Gravel's storied 25-year tenure.
All-American middle hitter Allyssa Van Wienen and junior outside hitter Karoline Shelton have been a lethal 1-2 punch for the Chargers, combining for 311 kills between the two of them in fifteen matches and both holding hitting percentages of .299 or better.
Hillsdale's ability to spread the ball around to effective hitters, thanks to setters Lindsey Mertz and Madeline Zenas, is a large part of what makes the team so dangerous. Eight Chargers averaged 1 or more kills per set in the team's fifteen matches.
The Chargers also have played extremely clean volleyball so far, with their lone loss to Gannon the notable exception. Hillsdale has a kill to attack error ratio of 3.1 in the fourteen matches it's played, and has committed just 35 service errors and 51 reception errors. That lack of mistakes makes it extremely difficult for opponents to get back in the match if the Chargers' powerhouse offense can get out to an early lead.
Coaching the Chargers for the 25th year is Chris Gravel, who's built Hillsdale's program from the ground up and into one of the top programs in the Midwest Region. Under Gravel, the Chargers have won seven conference regular season titles, six conference tournament titles, made 12 NCAA Division II tournament appearances, won the Midwest Regional title in 2011, and reached the NCAA DII Final Four in that same year.
Other Notes
- Only three teams in G-MAC history have won a conference tournament title. Hillsdale has captured three straight from 2017-19 and enters as the defending champions, while Cedarville won four of the first five titles from 2012-16. Trevecca Nazarene won the 2015 title as well. Tiffin and Walsh are both seeking their first conference tournament title since joining NCAA Division II. The Dragons' best finish was a runner-up performance in 2019, while Walsh is looking for its first G-MAC tournament final appearance in its fourth-straight trip to the semifinals.
- Three G-MAC teams were ranked in the most recent AVCA Top 25 poll, including fifth-ranked Hillsdale and eighth-ranked Walsh. All four teams playing in this weekend's final four have been ranked by the AVCA at one point this season.
- Hillsdale has won all three G-MAC Tournaments it's played in since joining the conference in 2017, dropping only five sets in nine matches on the way to those crowns. Including GLIAC titles, the Chargers have won six conference tournaments in program history, all in the last 11 years.
- Senior Allyssa Van Wienen has broken into the top 10 in program history in both kills and blocks this season. Van Wienen currently sits in seventh all-time in career blocks with 304, 28 behind sixth-place Katherine Jones ('06), and she's ninth in kills with 1,078, 47 behind eighth-place Clara Leutheuser. Van Wienen is one of just four players in program history (Leutheuser, Leslie Koppelman and Taryn Rudland) to reach 1,000 kills and 300 blocks in her career.
- Senior libero/defensive specialist Madie Schider moved past Amanda Proctor ('04) for 10th all-time in Charger history in career digs this past week. At 959 for her career now, Schider also has a very real chance to become the 10th player in program history with 1,000 digs.
- Freshman Alli Wiese tied a single-match program record in Friday's 3-1 win over Cedarville, finishing with six aces in the victory. She's one of seven Charger players to record six aces in a match in the 25-point rally scoring era that began in 2008, including teammate Lindsey Mertz and All-American honorees Sydney Dow and Ashlee Crowder.