Two of the Hillsdale College volleyball team's top performers in 2022 wrapped up the regular season by claiming shared honors from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, the league announced on Monday afternoon.
Senior Karoline Shelton was named the G-MAC North Division Offensive Player of the Week, while sophomore Alli Wiese was named the G-MAC North Division Defensive Player of the Week by the league for their play this past weekend. It's the fourth time this season each player has earned a weekly conference honor.
Playing in the final two home matches of her career, Shelton had a standout weekend hitting for the Chargers, racking up 38 total kills in four-set victories over Walsh and Malone to help the Chargers clinch the G-MAC North Division title outright. The senior hit a scorching .340 for the weekend, including a .500 hitting performance with 21 kills against Malone on Saturday.
Shelton still has a postseason run left with the Chargers to add to her stats, but she's already left a huge mark on Hillsdale with what she's already accomplished. The 2021 All-American and Spring 2021 G-MAC Player of the Year is one of two players in Hillsdale history to surpass 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career. She's currently fourth all-time in kills with 1,447, just behind former teammate Allyssa Van Wienen for third place, and fifth in digs with 1,571. For the season, Shelton's 360 kills this year are also up to ninth all-time on the Chargers' single-season list.
Wiese, meanwhile, has two seasons still to play, but is also rapidly rising up the ranks of all-time Charger greats. She had a massive weekend, finishing with 68 digs in Hillsdale's two victories and a staggering 8.5 digs per set average. Her 40 digs in Hillsdale's win over Walsh tied the program's single-match record for digs set by her older sister, Taylor, in 2019, and she did so in a four-set match, while Taylor accomplished her feat in five.
Those 68 digs helped Wiese break her own Charger record for digs in a single season, set in 2021 at 624. Wiese has 628 in 30 matches this year, with the postseason run still to come, and has a real chance to put up the first 700 dig season at Hillsdale in the 25-point rally scoring era.
Her 5.46 digs per set are a career-high this season, and not only top the G-MAC but also rank 10th in the nation at the NCAA DII level. She's also developed into a lethal server, with 52 aces in 2022, the second-most all-time in a single season in Charger history, and just five off the record set by Apryl Schmucker in 2021. Wiese now ranks in the top 10 in two Hillsdale career categories, currently sitting in sixth in digs with 1,562 and tied for 10th in aces with 124. Wiese has a chance not only to break her older sister's career digs record of 2,251 -- she's on pace to do it potentially as soon as next season -- but also to break the career service aces record of 219 set by 1998 graduate Katie Keane.
Hillsdale next heads into the G-MAC Tournament hosted by Ashland this coming weekend. The Chargers are the two-seed and would like to get revenge on top-seeded Ashland, who swept them earlier in the season, and win a sixth-straight G-MAC Tournament title. Hillsdale's path begins with a tough quarterfinal match against seventh-seeded Northwood, who took the Chargers to five sets earlier in the season, on Thursday at noon.
Photos by Isabella Sheehan