Over the course of a legendary career at Hillsdale College, Chris Gravel has taken the Chargers volleyball program out of the basement and into the penthouse of the Midwest Region, building a program that can stand toe to toe with some of the best in the country at the NCAA DII level.
And as that legendary career continues, Gravel keeps reaching new milestones. The latest -- becoming just the 12th active coach at the NCAA DII level to reach 600 match victories for his career with Hillsdale's 25-10, 25-15, 25-20 victory over visiting Ohio Dominican on Saturday.
All 600 of those victories have come at Hillsdale. Just four of the other 11 active coaches to surpass 600 wins for their careers did so with only one college program, making Gravel's accomplishments at Hillsdale even more special.
The Chargers' victory over the Panthers was a vintage win for a Chris Gravel-coached team, and a mirror image of Hillsdale's dominant sweep of Ashland the night before. As in the win over the Eagles, the Chargers set the tempo of the match from the service line, using strong serving to wreak havoc with Ohio Dominican's offense and keeping the Panthers too off-balance to respond for most of the match. Junior Marilyn Popplewell led the way with five aces and also tied for Hillsdale's offensive lead with eight kills, as well as five digs.
Hillsdale jumped out to big leads in each of the first two sets, taking a 10-2 edge in set one behind three early kills from senior Megan Kolp, and a 15-4 lead in set two as well to roll to dominant victories in both sets. Set three was tighter as Ohio Dominican came out determined to avoid the sweep and played more aggressively offensively, but even in that set, the Chargers used a 5-0 run to carve out a 13-7 advantage and never trailed again the rest of the way.
Along with strong serving, Hillsdale had an efficient day offensively, hitting .349 at the net. Junior Maizie Brown added eight kills and four block assists as well for the Chargers, Kolp chipped in seven kills, and sophomores Adi Sysum and Emory Braswell each chipped in six kills to lead a balanced attack. Junior Alli Wiese led Hillsdale defensively with 19 digs, while setter Lauren Passaglia finished with 24 assists, two kills, two block assists and four digs as well.
The Chargers improve to 18-4 overall, 10-1 in the G-MAC and have another big match on Sunday, as Hillsdale finishes off a busy weekend with a tough home contest against Findlay, 8-3 in the G-MAC. The Oilers are two games back of Hillsdale in the standings and looking to reel the Chargers in, while Hillsdale is seeking another victory to keep pace with undefeated Walsh atop the G-MAC standings ahead of a big rematch with the Cavaliers in two weeks.
Photo by Jordan Monnin