An uneven start gave way to a dominant finish and a special milestone for the 18th-ranked Hillsdale College volleyball team in the G-MAC semifinals on Friday night.
The Chargers trailed late in both the first and second sets on Friday against a determined Trevecca Nazarene team that didn't want to see its season end, but rallied for 25-19 and 25-23 victories in both, then took control in the third set, rolling to a 25-8 victory that clinched Hillsdale's fifth-straight G-MAC Tournament finals berth and kept its goal of a fifth-straight title alive.
In set 1, the Chargers got off to a rough start, and trailed 18-15 late in the set. But Hillsdale reeled off nine straight points with senior Allyssa Van Wienen at the service line, including two aces from Van Wienen, to turn that deficit into a 24-18 advantage and a victory.
Fighting back in the second set, Trevecca Nazarene scored seven straight points to take a 22-20 lead and looked to be well on their way to evening up the match. Hillsdale once again had other plans, however. A kill by junior Karoline Shelton sparked a 4-0 run that helped Hillsdale secure a 25-23 victory.
Buoyed by two hard-fought set victories, the Chargers were lights out in third set, hitting .520 with no attack errors and holding Trevecca to -0.065 hitting and just six kills to secure the sweep.
As a part of the victory, Shelton also hit a special milestone for the Chargers. With 10 kills, Shelton surpassed 1,000 kills for her career, after moving past 1,000 digs on Oct. 22 against Ashland. That makes Shelton just the second player in Hillsdale College volleyball history to surpass both 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs for her career, joining 2000 graduate Cassandra Cole in achieving those dual milestones while having one more season of eligiblity to add to those marks. Shelton also finished with a team-high 12 digs on the night.
Van Wienen led the Chargers offensively with 12 kills and four total blocks, and senior Maddie Clark added six kills and two blocks as well. Freshman Maizie Brown chipped in five blocks defensively, and fellow freshman Alli Wiese added 11 digs. Senior Madie Schider and sophomore Audrey Riley each added two aces as well.
Setter Lindsey Mertz finished with 25 assists and three blocks as well for the Chargers.
Hillsdale (26-4) will host the G-MAC Tournament final tomorrow, Saturday, against G-MAC South Division champion Ashland at 2:30 p.m. The Eagles advanced with a 3-1 victory over Ohio Dominican in the other semifinal on Friday night, and were swept by the Chargers in their only prior meeting this season on Oct. 23.
A victory would give Hillsdale a fifth consecutive conference tournament crown. Hillsdale has never lost in the G-MAC tournament in 13 matches dating back to joining the conference in 2017.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan