Last night the women’s volleyball team was victorious over the University of Findlay in their first round match of the GLIAC Conference Tournament, defeating the Oilers in a 3-2 thriller.
The Chargers took the lead quickly, winning the first game 30-22 before dropping games two and three 30-19 and 30-24, respectively. They then stormed back, winning the fourth game 30-26 and a tight, decisive, fifth game 15-13.
This was the third time these two teams had met this season, after splitting their first two matches. The Chargers defeated the Oilers on Sept. 17 at Jesse Phillips Arena 3-1 before losing their second meeting 2-3 on Oct. 21.
According to the team, redemption was going to play a factor in last night’s game as they hoped to prove their last meeting was a fluke.
“We made a lot of errors in all five games against Findlay last time,” head coach Chris Gravel said. “Thankfully, we have been able to correct those errors, and I think we have a very good chance of coming out on top.”
With the victory over Findlay the Chargers were able to escape the first of their new season tests, a season in which they either continue winning or their season is over. After falling out of the top eight in the region, the team’s only hopes of going on to the regional tournament is to win the conference tournament.
The team says that the added pressure of knowing every game could be their last will hopefully cause them to play well for every point, game and match.
“It’s a new season,” Gravel said. “There are so many reasons to play well. One of which that we’ve been focusing on is how we have to win in order to continue our season. That’s our approach to it, and we’re hoping it will help us to play well. But we can’t focus on it too much or it might hinder, rather than help, our performance.”
Last weekend the women’s volleyball team closed out an exciting 2005 regular season by quickly defeating Mercyhurst and Gannon. The Chargers were rarely tested as they won both matches 3-0 with scores of 30-23, 30-10 and 30-28 against Mercyhurst and 30-17, 30-21 and 30-4 against Gannon.
“I think the team played pretty well this weekend,” sophomore Megan Howard said. “We knew we were in control of the match but we shouldn’t have made some of the mistakes we did. We missed some serves, and had some unforced errors, but all in all, we took care of business.”
Hillsdale was led by junior Taryn Rudland’s 25 total kills for the two matches, along with fellow juniors Katherine Jones (16) and Becky Grzegorski (13).
Junior Tessa Bloemers led the team with 30 digs, while Howard, who leads the GLIAC in total digs, amassed 22.
Freshman Stephanie Booms led the Chargers with 46 assists, while senior Sumer Way totaled 30.
“It was amazing,” senior co-captain Sumer Way said. “It was a great game. We played hard and were able to come together as a team to pull out the win.”
The Chargers ended the regular season with an overall record of 18-10 and 11-6 in the GLIAC.
This Saturday Hillsdale will travel to Ohio for the second time in four days to attempt to keep their season going by taking on the University of Ashland for their second round match.