Photo courtesy of Scott Hagen
Freshman Lindesy Eshelman hits as her teammates cover her. Eshelman contributed eight kills, and Taryn Rudland put down 22 on the way to the team's historic 3-2 win.
Photo courtesy of Scott Hagen
Rudland (L), Poschke and Way react to Rudland's match-clinching kill.
For the first time in team history, the Hillsdale volleyball team is ranked in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 Poll, receiving 73 points in order to secure their spot at 25th.
"It's awesome," junior Sumer Way said. "We're really excited. Our goal is to always improve. It's gonna take a lot of work, but we're up to the challenge. With it comes great responsibility. Now, every time we play we have to prove that we deserve to be nationally ranked."
A catalyst for Hillsdale's number 25 ranking was the team's amazing win over 14th ranked Northwood Saturday.
Hillsdale stormed back from a 0-2 deficit, winning the last three games and the match 26-30, 29-31, 30-23, 30-28, 15-12.
It was the first time Hillsdale had beaten Northwood in 10 years.
But according to the players and coaches, they anticipated a win all along.
"We expected to win," head coach Chris Gravel said. "This was our sixth nationally recognized team of the year. We won this weekend because, starting last Monday, every person on this team worked very hard to prepare for the weekend."
"Our win on Saturday was pretty big," Sophomore Becky Grzegorski said. "One of our team goals this season is to host the first round of the conference tournament. In order to do that, we have to win about 12 conference matches, so this puts us one step closer to hosting the first round."
The Chargers were led by sophomore Taryn Rudland, Grzegorski and senior Karin Poschke. Rudland, who earned a place on the GLIAC South Division Honor Roll for her performance, led Hillsdale with 22 kills and nine solo and assisted blocks.
Grzegorski contibuted 11 kills and Poschke racked up 54 assists in a pair of impressive performances.
"I felt like this weekend I was just in the zone," Rudland said. "I had a good feeling going into the match. I wanted the game so badly that I gave everything I had."
Even though the team is playing at such a high level of play and experiencing so much success, do not expect them to get complacent or become cocky. Instead, they plan on staying focused and continuing to do what got them here, working hard.
"We can't and won't get cocky about this win," Grzgorski said. "Northwood is a really good team, but they are only one of many really good teams that we will face this season. We can't dwell on our win this past weekend. We need to focus, on the things we did right, but we also need to move on and prepare ourselves for the upcoming matches."
"There are still a lot of good teams to play," Gravel said. "In this conference, a team with a losing record can have a great day and beat one of the leagues best."
The team's focus was evident Friday and Tuesday as the Chargers dismissed Saginaw Valley and Tiffin with relative ease, winning both 3-0.
Hillsdale will continue to try to maintain their high level of play as they go on the road to face off against Findlay, whom they replaced at No. 25, Saturday.