The 18th-ranked Hillsdale College volleyball team collected its seventh-straight sweep in G-MAC play on Saturday at home against Tiffin, but this one took a little extra to finish.
The Chargers and Dragons engaged in a marathon second set, and Hillsdale fought off several set points to pull out a narrow victory that helped secure a 25-13, 35-33, 25-21 victory.
After a dominant first set victory, Hillsdale went to its bench in the second set, while a determined Tiffin team buckled down and came out looking to get back to even. The set was close throughout, with 18 tie scores and 10 lead changes, and Tiffin had five set points with a chance to end the match that the Chargers halted. Finally, trailing 33-32, the Chargers reeled off three straight points, aided by kills from senior Allyssa Van Wienen and Amy Buffini, to pull out a victory in the extended rally.
The Charger offense had a strong day, with 57 total kills in the match, well outpacing Tiffin's 34 kills. The Dragons were able to slow Hillsdale's offense down somewhat with 14.5 total blocks, but struggled to muster consistent offense of their own, as the Chargers held Tiffin to just a .079 hitting percentage in the match.
With almost every Charger seeing action, Hillsdale's balance ande depth shone through in the victory. No player had double-digit kills for the Chargers, but three had nine kills, including Van Wienen, junior Karoline Shelton and freshman Marilyn Popplewell, who set a new career high in the stat and hit .400 for the match.
Buffini chipped in seven kills and Maggie DePorre added five as well for the Chargers.
Freshman libero Alli Wiese led Hillsdale defensively with 19 digs, Shelton chipped in 16 and Buffini added 15 on the night. Shelton's 16 digs added to the 23 she had on Friday to give her 37 for the weekend, enough to become just the 11th player in Hillsdale history to go over 1,000 digs for her career. With 947 kills as well, Shelton is a near lock to join Cassandra Cole as one of just two players in Hillsdale history with 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career later this year.
All three of Hillsdale's setters saw action in the victory, with freshman Lauren Passaglia posting a career-high 21 assists in the second set. Senior Lindsey Mertz and sophomore Madeline Zenas each chipped in 12 assists apiece for Hillsdale.
The Chargers (20-3, 11-0 G-MAC) have a short turnaround to a massive home match on Tuesday, as Hillsdale hosts Midwest Regional foe Ferris St. in a non-conference match at 7 p.m. The Bulldogs are one of a select group of teams along with Hillsdale that are in contention for the top seed in the Midwest Region in the upcoming NCAA tournament, and Tuesday is an excellent chance for both teams to stake their claim to be the regional host in December.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan