The last loss the Hillsdale College volleyball team had suffered in G-MAC play before the start of its astonishing 92-match conference winning streak, 78 in the regular season and 14 in conference tournaments, was a five-set defeat at the hands of Cedarville on September 15, 2017.
On Friday, that impressive streak came to a close against the very same squad who had handed the Chargers their last conference loss, and in a similar fashion. Hillsdale fought hard but couldn't fight all the way back from a big deficit in the fifth set in a 25-11, 17-25, 25-27, 26-24, 11-15 defeat at the hands of the Yellowjackets.
Early on in the match, there was little indication that Hillsdale's streak might be in jeopardy. The Chargers came out and dominated the first set on the road, winning 25-11 and hitting .308 while forcing the Yellow Jackets into more attack errors than kills. Six total blocks helped keep Cedarville's offense off-balance.
But in the second set, a familiar problem all season long for the Chargers came back to bite Hillsdale in a big way. Several times in 2022 Hillsdale has followed a dominating set one victory with a sluggish performance in set two, and Cedarville took advantage of that phenomenon on Friday night, jumping out to a huge early lead and rolling to a 25-17 victory to even up the match behind a .250 hitting percentage.
After the second set, Hillsdale spent the rest of the match on the back foot, never fully able to regain the momentum it had established early on. The Chargers couldn't cash in a 19-15 lead in set three, as errors allowed Cedarville to sneak back in the set and pull ahead late for a 27-25 victory to go up 2-1. Even in the fourth set, where Hillsdale pulled out a 26-24 victory to force a fifth and deciding set, the Chargers had to overcome a significant early deficit and never had a lead larger than one point until the very end of the set.
In the critical set five, the Chargers fought hard, pulling a six point deficit down to three with a kill and block from sophomore Marilyn Popplewell, but trailed for the entirety after falling behind 3-0 early.
In battling back from a 2-1 deficit to get to set five, the Chargers showed grit, but uncharacteristic errors plagued Hillsdale throughout the match, including seven missed serves and 23 attack errors in the contest. Those miscues made it hard for Hillsdale to establish a rhythm offensively and seize control of sets with long scoring runs. Cedarville also made things difficult for the Chargers with fearless, aggressive play, pounding down 65 kills in the match and doing exactly what it had to do to pull off the upset.
Popplewell led the Chargers offensively with a career-high 19 kills and two block assists, and senior Karoline Shelton chipped in 17 kills and 14 digs as well. Sophomore Sydney Sahr had the best match of her career for the Chargers to keep Hillsdale in it, finishing with a career-high 10 kills on .400 hitting, as well as a career high seven total blocks.
Sophomore Alli Wiese finished with 38 digs, a career-high for her as well, to lead the Chargers defensively, while Audrey Riley chipped in 15 digs and Amy Buffini added 13 digs and three aces for Hillsdale. Maizie Brown chipped in five block assists and four kills as well for the Chargers.
Senior Madeline Zenas and sophomore Lauren Passaglia split the setting duties on the night for the Chargers. Zenas was the primary setter for the first three sets and finished with 32 assists, three kills, four block assists and 11 digs, while Passaglia was the primary setter for the final two and finished with 18 assists and eight digs.
The Chargers are now 14-3 overall, and 7-1 in G-MAC play. The upset loss isn't fatal to Hillsdale's hopes of winning a G-MAC North Division title, but the Chargers can't afford further missteps with division leader Findlay now a game ahead of them in the standings. Hillsdale will look to get back on track and start a new streak on Saturday when it travels to Ohio Dominican for a 6 p.m. conference contest.
Photo by Anthony Lupi