Box Score

After more than a month on the road, the Charger volleyball team finally played in front of its home fans Friday night, and those fans didn't leave disappointed.

Hillsdale played hard and sharp all night, defeating Northern Michigan University 3-1 in a GLIAC matchup. The Chargers are now 11-2 overall and 5-1 in the GLIAC while NMU falls to 2-4 in conference play.

The Chargers took a 2-0 lead thanks to wins by scores of 25-18 and 25-23 in the first two sets. An aggressively serving Wildcats team came back for a 25-20 win in set three, but the Chargers countered well in set four, winning 25-21.

Hillsdale didn't commit a single attack error in the opening set, hitting .478 as a team, while the Wildcats committed nine attack errors in the opening frame. Setters Marissa Owen and Taylor Bennett did an excellent job of controlling the offense and setting their team's hitters up for high-percentage swings.

Four players had between nine and 10 kills in another well-balanced Hillsdale offensive attack. Junior Erin Holsinger and senior Emily Wolfert led the way with 10 kills apiece while the dynamic freshman combination of Kara Vyletel and Paige VanderWall each recorded 9 kills. Holsinger had a .450 hitting percentage, while Wolfert was huge at the net with 8 block assists.

Owen handed out 25 assists and picked up 7 digs, while Bennett added 9 digs and 17 assists.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: Hillsdale hit .343 in set four and scored 16 of its 25 points directly off kills…Six different players had between 5 and 9 digs for the Chargers…NMU had 10 more kills as a team than Hillsdale, but committed twice as many hitting errors (30-15)...This was Hillsdale's first win over NMU since Nov. 6, 2011...The Chargers played 12 straight matches on the road, but now enter a stretch of four straight at home.

UP NEXT: The Chargers host Michigan Tech at 2 p.m. Saturday.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Klopfer