Schedule
#17 Hillsdale (8-2, 2-0 G-MAC) at Kentucky Wesleyan (2-8, 0-2 G-MAC) | 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24 | Jones Gym | Owensboro, KY
#17 Hillsdale (8-2, 2-0 G-MAC) at Trevecca Nazarene (8-2, 1-1 G-MAC) | 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25 | Trojan Fieldhouse | Nashville, TN
Follow/Watch
Live Stats vs KWC | Video vs KWC | Live Stats vs Trevecca | Video vs Trevecca
Additional Info
Hillsdale Roster | KWC Roster | Trevecca Roster | 2021 Hillsdale Stats | 2021 KWC Stats | 2021 Trevecca Stats
Players to Watch
Hillsdale: #7 Karoline Shelton, Jr., OH, Shawnee, KS/Mission South (5th G-MAC in K/S, 4th in P/S, 7th in D/S, 9th in hitting %); #9 Allyssa Van Wienen, Sr., MH, Grand Rapids, MI/Christian (1st G-MAC in B/S, 6nd in P/S,75th in hitting %); #4 Alli Wiese, Fr., L/DS, Mattawan, MI/Mattawan (1st G-MAC in D/S), #15 Lindsey Mertz, Sr., S, Frankenmuth, MI/Frankenmuth (1st G-MAC in A/S)
Kentucky Wesleyan: #12 Karrah Cron, Jr., S, Auburn, KY/Logan Co. (5th G-MAC in SA/S, 9th in A/S); #7 Lilly Trump, So., OH, Union, KY/Larry A. Ryle (KWC leader in K/S); #3 Ava Rebarchik, So., MH, Sussex, WI/Hamilton (KWC leader in B/S); #11 Maggie Vincent, Jr., L/DS, Henderson, KY/Henderson Co. (KWC leader in D/S)
Trevecca: #16 Ellie Buffler, Jr., OH, Nashville, TN/Hume-Fogg (10th G-MAC in K/S, 8th in P/S); #8 Austyn Baldwin, Sr., MB, Kingston Springs, TN/Harpeth (1st G-MAC in hitting %, 9th in B/S), #22 Chloee McDaniel, Jr., S, Hendersonville, TN/Beech, Missouri St. University (7th G-MAC in A/S); #4 Claire Hindman, Sr., L/DS, Westfield, IN/Westfield (10th G-MAC in D/S)
Scouting the Opposition
Kentucky Wesleyan: The Panthers got the 2021 season off to a promising start with two wins in their first three matches, but enter Friday's contest on a seven-match losing streak.
A difficult opening conference schedule for KWC sees the Panthers, who were swept by two expected G-MAC South Division title contenders, Cedarville and Ohio Dominican, play the two top teams in the G-MAC North Division, Hillsdale and Findlay, back-to-back this season.
The Panthers are looking to rebound from a 2-9 campaign in the Spring 2021 season that saw them miss the G-MAC tournament, but have struggled offensively to start. In order to get things back on track, KWC must improve its hitting percentage (.113) and kills per set (10.12), marks that currently rank 10th or lower in the 12-team G-MAC.
The Panthers do have a solid setter in Karrah Cron, who's also a weapon at the service line. KWC will look to hitters Nicole Martin, Lilly Trump and Ava Rebarchik to continue to improve.
The Panthers are coached by Eric Hagan, who is in his eighth season with the program. During his tenure at Kentucky Wesleyan, the Panthers have made five of the last seven G-MAC tournaments.
Trevecca: At 8-2, the Trojans enter this weekend with one of their best starts in a while and look the part of a contender in a crowded G-MAC South division after upsetting preseason favorite Cedarville.
Trevecca is reaping the dividends of a youth movement begun two seasons ago, when then first-year head coach Emily Moore turned the program over to a promising group of freshmen and sophomores.
That core – led by spring 2021 G-MAC First Teamer Austyn Baldwin and 2019 G-MAC Freshman of the Year Ellie Buffler – helped the Trojans to back-to-back G-MAC tourney appearances and appears to now be coming of age at the right time to make a push in the conference standings.
Trevecca boasts one of the league's more potent offenses (third in hitting percentage and fifth in kills per set) as well as a strong defense at the net, conceding the second-fewest kills per set of any team in the G-MAC.
Moore, now in her third season as a head coach, has had the Trojans on a consistently upward trajectory over her time in Nashville and leads the team again this season.
Scouting the Chargers
The Chargers pulled out victories at home over Malone and a solid Walsh squad, both in four sets, to open the G-MAC season with a 2-0 record and in first place in the North Division, tied with Findlay.
Now carrying a 57-match winning streak in G-MAC regular season contests, Hillsdale prepares for its longest road trip in conference play, as the Chargers head to Kentucky and Tennessee this weekend looking to remain unbeaten in conference play.
Hillsdale has its sights set on its fifth-straight G-MAC regular season and tournament titles, and also on a deep NCAA Tournament run after not having the opportunity to compete in the tourney last year due to covid-19.
The Chargers return every player that saw action in the partial spring 2021 season, including four players who were slated to graduate in the spring of 2021 but who couldn't pass up the opportunity to make one more run at NCAA glory after a Covid-19 waiver was extended to preserve their eligibility.
That core group of unprecedented fifth-year players – Allyssa Van Wienen, Lindsey Mertz, Madie Schider and Maddie Clark – is just the tip of the iceberg on a loaded and talented roster that may be the deepest in Hillsdale College history.
Van Wienen, a consensus 2019 All-American and the 2019 G-MAC Player of the Year, is joined up front by junior Karoline Shelton, who was the G-MAC Player of the Year in the 2021 spring season, along with a host of past All-G-MAC honorees – senior Maggie DePorre, sophomore Megan Kolp, and freshman Maizie Brown (who played with the Chargers in the spring) – to give Hillsdale a formidable group of hitters.
The decorated Mertz, who's on track to set the Charger program's career assists record, conducts the offense from the setter position, and Hillsdale proved in the spring it has a capable backup in Madeline Zenas, who was named to the All-G-MAC third team after filling in for Mertz following an injury.
In the back row, Schider, top 10 in program history in digs, is joined by sophomore Audrey Riley and freshman Alli Wiese, a breakout star at libero who earned first-team All-G-MAC honors in the spring, to give the Chargers an elite back row.
Returning Chargers at all positions will be pushed by a strong and talented five-player freshman class which has the skill and the determination to contribute early on, the way Brown and Wiese did in the spring of 2021.
Coaching the Chargers for the 26th 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 eight conference regular season titles, seven 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
- Hillsdale was ranked in the AVCA DII Top 25 poll for the 31st consecutive week on Sept. 20, coming in at 17th after starting the season 13th. 31 weeks in the poll is a new program record for consecutive weeks as a ranked team, surpassing the longest previous stretch in program history from 2006-2008.
- Hillsdale freshman Alli Wiese was named G-MAC North Division Defensive Player of the Week for the second straight week after averaging 5.87 digs per set in Charger victories over Malone and Walsh. A spring 2021 first-team All-G-MAC player, Wiese is leading the G-MAC in digs per set by a significant margin and is among the national leaders in Division II, currently in the top 25 in digs per set with 5.58 two weeks into the season.
- Charger senior Lindsey Mertz is among the national leaders for setters once again – as she has been several times in her five-year career. Mertz currently ranks in the top five in Division II with 11.73 assists per set. The Frankenmuth, Michigan native holds the single-season school record for assists (1,264) set in 2019, and is currently second in career assists with 4,364, 276 behind school record holder Stephanie Booms. If she maintains her current pace, Mertz should overtake Booms for the school record in mid-October.
- Senior middle hitter Allyssa Van Wienen is among the national leaders in blocks per set early on, currently sitting in the top 20 in Division II with 1.28 after the first three weekends. Both an All-American (in 2019) and an Academic All-American (in spring 2021), Van Wienen continues to climb the career statistical ranks at Hillsdale, sitting in sixth place all-time in program history in kills with 1,214, and also sixth among Chargers all-time in total blocks, with 357.
- Junior outside hitter Karoline Shelton continues her torrid start to the season for the Chargers, finishing with 32 kills and 40 digs in two matches this past week, including a career-high 24 digs in the Chargers' Saturday victory over Walsh. The Shawnee, Kansas native had a break-out campaign in the spring 2021 season, earning G-MAC Player of the Year honors and leading the Chargers in kills. Shelton's all-around versatility is impressive – with 797 kills and 836 digs in her career so far, she's rapidly closing in on becoming just the second player in program history with 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career with two seasons of eligibility remaining.