With a massive match looming on Saturday, there was a risk that the Hillsdale College volleyball team could get caught looking ahead on Friday night against a dangerous Tiffin team on the road.
But the Chargers came to Tiffin ready, jumping out to a dominant two-set lead and taking care of business in a 25-17, 25-12, 20-25, 25-14 victory over the host Dragons.
The victory means that Hillsdale heads to G-MAC leader Ashland tomorrow with an opportunity to strike a critical blow in the race for the top seed and hosting rights in the season-ending G-MAC Tournament.
The Chargers put together an impressive offensive performance, hitting .283 for the match with 54 total kills. In the three sets the Chargers won, Hillsdale hit .391, .375 and .323 respectively, winning each of the three sets by eight or more points.
As it has in many of the Chargers' victories, Hillsdale's extreme offensive balance made it nearly impossible for Tiffin to lock in defensively. Sophomore Marilyn Popplewell led the way for the Chargers with a 16-kill match, but four additional players contributed seven or more kills as well.
Senior Megan Kolp was by far the Chargers' most efficient hitter, blasting 10 kills with a blistering .714 hitting percentage. Senior Karoline Shelton chipped in eight kills, nine digs and three total blocks, while sophomore Maizie Brown added seven kills, two aces and three total blocks and sophomore Sydney Sahr chipped in seven kills as well.
With the exception of the third set, the Chargers were near-perfect on the night, but an uncharacteristic eight attack errors in set three put Hillsdale behind the eight ball in set three. The Chargers were still nearly able to rally from an early five point deficit, but back-to-back late aces by the Dragons allowed Tiffin to pull away and force a fourth set.
At that point, however, the Chargers locked in again, jumping out to an early 10-4 lead and never looking back.
Libero Alli Wiese had another big match for the Chargers, finishing with 21 digs and three aces to lead Hillsdale in both categories, while senior Audrey Riley chipped in 10 digs and two aces as well.
Sophomore setter Lauren Passaglia did an excellent job of directing the Charger attack all night, finishing with 43 assists and 13 digs in the match.
On top of hitting well, Hillsdale also served well in the match, finishing with nine aces on the night.
Hillsdale improves to 16-3 overall, 9-1 in G-MAC play. Next up is the 10-0 Eagles at 2 p.m. on Saturday and what looms as a pivotal crossroads in the Chargers' season. A victory creates a three-way tie atop the overall G-MAC standings and gives Hillsdale a critical tiebreaker over Ashland with just a few weeks of conference play remaining, but a loss would all but end the Chargers' hopes of hosting a sixth-straight G-MAC Tournament, as Hillsdale would fall two matches behind Ashland with seven conference matches left to play, and also hand the Eagles the tiebreaker.
Photo by Anthony Lupi