Schedule
Tiffin (11-11, 5-6 G-MAC) at RV Hillsdale (17-3, 10-1 G-MAC) | 7 p.m. ET Friday, Nov. 8 | Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena | Hillsdale, MI
Findlay (17-6, 9-2 G-MAC) at RV Hillsdale (14-3, 7-1 G-MAC) | 5 p.m. ET Saturday, Nov. 9 | Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena | Hillsdale, MI
 
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Additional Info
Hillsdale Roster | Tiffin Roster | Findlay Roster | Hillsdale Stats | Tiffin Stats | Ashland Stats | Lake Erie Stats |  G-MAC Stats | G-MAC Standings
 
Players to Watch
Hillsdale:  : #6 Amanda Hilliker, Sr., L/DS, Byron Center, MI/Byron Center (7th G-MAC in D/S); #8 Maizie Brown, Sr., MH, Portage, MI/Central (10th G-MAC in B/S); #11 Lauren Passaglia, Sr., S/OH, Cary, IL/Cary Grove (6th G-MAC in A/S, 7th in Hitting %); #13 Marilyn Popplewell, Sr., OH, Mason, OH/Mason (4th G-MAC in K/S, 2nd in P/S, 3rd in SA/S)
 
Tiffin: : #8 Addison Conti, Sr., OH/DS/S, Tiffin, OH/Columbian (8th G-MAC in A/S); #10 Kaylee Freund, Jr., MH, New Bremen, OH/New Bremen (1st G-MAC in B/S); #13 Diana Heitkamp, Sr., DS, New Bremen, OH/New Bremen (6th G-MAC in D/S); #14 Kenedi Goon, Sr., RS, Ashland, OH/Crestview (7th G-MAC in B/S)
 
Findlay: #2 Ava Doster, Sr., DS, New Haven, IN/New Haven (10th G-MAC in D/S); #7 Alana Pohlman, Jr., MH, Maria Stein, OH/Marion Local (8th G-MAC in P/S, 3rd in hitting %); #9 Emma White, Jr., S, Tiffin, OH/Calvert (1st G-MAC in A/S, 2nd in SA/S); #15 Hannah Miller, So., OH, Tiffin,  OH/Calvert (3rd G-MAC in K/S, 5th in P/S)
 
Scouting the Opposition
Tiffin: Hillsdale will be looking for revenge on Friday against a Tiffin team that handed the Chargers their only conference loss in a five-set defeat in October.

Despite residing in the basement of the G-MAC North Division, the Dragons are a dangerous squad, having handed Hillsdale and Findlay two of their combined three conference losses, and have something to play for this weekend as they look to lock up a G-MAC Tourney berth.

Tiffin has developed a reputation as a ferocious defensive team at the net, leading the conference in blocks per set by a wide margin. Middle Hitter Kaylee Freund is averaging a massive 1.45 blocks per set to lead the G-MAC individually, while fellow front-row player Kenedi Goon is also in the top 10 and sophomore Katelyn Owens puts up strong numbers as well.

The Dragons are pairing that excellent net defense with an improving offense, as Goon has been coming into her own as a hitter on the right side, while Freund and Olivia Karhoff are also contributing as well. Tiffin runs a 6-2 system with Addison Conti, Clare Kwiatkowski and Maggie Pavlansky all getting run as setters for the Dragons so far. Diana Heitkamp is the team's libero, averaging 4.35 digs per set.
 
Findlay: The Oilers enter this weekend as the only team with a realistic chance of stopping Hillsdale's run to the G-MAC North Division title and seizing the crown for themselves, making today's match a huge one in the G-MAC race.

Findlay pins its hopes on the G-MAC's most efficient (a league-leading .272 hitting percentage) and explosive (G-MAC best 14.29 kills per set) offense. Sophomore Hannah Miller is one of the G-MAC's top hitters, and she has plenty of help up front in talented middles Alana Pohlman and Kenzie Hoelscher and freshmen Grace Auer and Stephanie Smith, all of whom contribute in a big way.

Veteran setter Emma White, a third-year starter, directs the attack and leads the G-MAC in assists per set, while Ava Doster returns for a second season as the team's libero. The Oilers are not a big blocking team, and have low dig totals overall, in large part due to how consistently Findlay ends points early.

The Oilers won two five-set thrillers over Hillsdale in the 2023 regular season but were swept by the Chargers in last year's G-MAC Tournament, and lost a 3-1 match at Findlay earlier in the season. To have any hope of bringing home its first title since 2017, today is a must-win match for the Oilers to keep pace.
 
 
Scouting the Chargers
A three-win weekend has Hillsdale on the cusp of locking up a G-MAC North Division title and the top seed in the G-MAC Tournament. The Chargers can end the title race this weekend, but they'll have to earn the title with tough matches against a Tiffin squad that handed the Chargers their only G-MAC loss earlier in the year, and the second-place team chasing the Chargers in the standings, Findlay.

The Chargers return a deep and talented roster full of meaningful postseason experience in 2024 as they look to capture their eighth-straight G-MAC Tournament title, win their seventh regular season title in eight seasons, and earn what would be their seventh straight NCAA DII Midwest Regional appearance, and eighth in nine seasons.

Hillsdale has a ton of experienced attacking talent up from to work with, led by returning honorable mention All-American Marilyn Popplewell, who holds the program's single-match records for both kills and digs and is entering her fourth season as a significant contributor. Hillsdale has another strong veteran in the middle in senior Maizie Brown, the 2023 G-MAC Tournament MVP and a four-time All-G-MAC player who's back for a fifth season. Along with those two veteran stalwarts, outside hitters Marcelina Gorny and Greta Wise and middles Sydney Sahr and Adi Sysum give Hillsdale plenty of talented options up front.

Directing the attack for the third straight season is senior setter and two-time All-G-MAC honoree Lauren Passaglia. The talented left-hander's hitting chops and versatility allow Hillsdale to flow freely into a variety of offensive sets and make the Chargers difficult to defend. Junior Josie TeSlaa also plays setter for Hillsdale and can play at the same time as Passaglia, giving the Chargers an impressive array of options when the ball is on their side of the court. A group of talented freshmen that includes four gifted attacking players improve Hillsdale's depth even further.

While Hillsdale's front row is loaded, the Chargers do have a big hole to fill with the graduation of libero Alli Wiese, who rewrote the Hillsdale record book for her position and became the first libero to earn conference Player of the Year honors in 2023. While that level of production will be tough to replace, Hillsdale has talented and experienced options to fill in the gap, including senior Amanda Hilliker, who played significant time in 2023, as well as sophomore Chloe Pierce and TeSlaa.

Coaching the Chargers for the 29^th year is Chris Gravel, who's built Hillsdale's program from the ground up and into one of the top programs in the Midwest Region. Under Gravel, the Chargers have won 10 conference regular season titles, 10 conference tournament titles, made 15 NCAA Division II tournament appearances, won the Midwest Regional title in 2011 and 2021, and reached the NCAA DII Final Four in 2011 while making the Elite Eight round in 2021.
 
Other Notes

• Chris Gravel reached an important milestone last season with his 600^th career coaching victory, all at Hillsdale, and is one of just 12 active coaches at the NCAA DII level to surpass that milestone. His 626 AVCA-recognized victories rank him tied for 11^th among all active coaches. Gravel has multiple showdowns this season with other coaches in the 600-win club, as Tampa's Chris Catanach and old friend and rival Wick Colchagoff of Findlay both put their teams up against Hillsdale this season.
• Hillsdale remains one of the top teams receiving votes outside of the top 25 in the AVCA poll. The Chargers have been mentioned in all ten AVCA NCAA DII Top 25 polls this season, including nine weeks as an honorable mention. The Chargers are one of six Midwest Region teams to be ranked or receiving votes in this week's poll, and the only squad from the G-MAC. The Chargers also were one of the top vote-getters in the 2024 G-MAC Preseason Coaches poll, and named the favorite to win the North Division.
• The Chargers enter the 2024 season looking to extend their dominance of the G-MAC for another campaign. Hillsdale has won six of the last seven regular season titles and seven G-MAC tournament titles in a row since joining the conference in 2017, and are 111-8 all-time in G-MAC regular season matches, as well as a perfect 20-0 in G-MAC Tournament matches.
• Returning All-American Marilyn Popplewell became the 13^th member of an exclusive club at Hillsdale in a sweep of Ohio Dominican earlier this season, surpassing 1,000 kills for her career. Popplewell is the first Hillsdale player to reach this milestone since former teammate Karoline Shelton in 2021. The outside hitter broke out early in her career, leading the Chargers with 18 kills in Hillsdale's Midwest Regional championship victory over Ferris State as a freshman in 2021. In the last two years she's built off that initial success with back-to-back first-team All-G-MAC honors, putting up the eighth and ninth-best single season kills totals as a junior and sophomore, and setting single-match records for kills (28) in Hillsdale's five-set NCAA Tournament upset of Lewis in 2022 and aces with eight in a four-set win over Wayne State last season. A star in every facet of the game, she is currently second in the G-MAC in points per set, third in service aces per set, and fourth in kills per set through nine weeks.  She also ranks in the top 50 in the nation in points per set and kills per set at the NCAA DII level.
• Maizie Brown returns to Hillsdale for a rare fifth season thanks to a waiver created by the Covid-19 pandemic, and is already in the history books for the Chargers as one of the finest middle hitters in the program's duration. A four-time All-G-MAC honoree and the 2023 G-MAC Tournament MVP, Brown is fifth all-time in program history with 429 blocks entering this weekend. She set a single-season program record in 2023 with 44 solo blocks, surpassing 2012 All-American Lauren Grover's 39, and her 123 total blocks in 2023 rank eighth all-time.
• Senior Lauren Passaglia is on a tear, having been named G-MAC North Division Player of the Week in back-to-back weeks entering this weekend. A unique weapon for Hillsdale, as both an elite setter with two All-G-MAC honors, and a dangerous attacking player as a hitter as well. Passaglia proved her versatility again in mid-September by leading the Chargers to an undefeated record at their home "Net Results" Invite and earning Tournament MVP honors as well. She also was named to the 2024 All-Midwest Crossover team, and has twice been named the G-MAC's North Division Athlete of the Week this season. Her flexibility enables a variety of lineups and tactics for head coach Chris Gravel to deploy. A third-year starter, Passaglia ranks seventh all-time in program history in assists with 2,795 entering this weekend.
• Hillsdale has been excellent at the net this season, ranking 22^nd nationally and second in the G-MAC in hitting percentage with .254, and is one of the top defensive teams in the G-MAC, leading the conference with 1.32 aces conceded per set and a .161 hitting percentage against.
• Family ties play an interesting role for the Hillsdale College volleyball team this year, with several players following in the footsteps of family members who played Charger athletics. four Hillsdale players have older siblings who are or were Chargers – libero Chloe Pierce's older sister, Sophia, is a former Hillsdale women's basketball player, front row player Adi Sysum is the younger sister of former women's basketball player Arianna Sysum, and setter Josie TeSlaa is the younger sister of former Charger football player Isaac TeSlaa. There's also a pair of siblings who are both currently on the roster for the Chargers, as sophomore Greta Wise joins her older sister, Jaclyn, on the squad as well.
• Hillsdale has a long history with both opponents this weekend dating back to shared membership in the GLIAC. The Chargers will be looking for revenge against Tiffin after the Dragons snapped a nine-match Hillsdale winning streak with a five-set victory over the Chargers at home in October. Hillsdale is 24-2 overall against the Dragons. Meanwhile, the Chargers are 36-20 against Findlay since the beginning of the 1998 season, including a 3-1 earlier this season in October and a sweep of the Oilers in the 2023 G-MAC Tournament. Findlay snapped a nine-match losing streak to Hillsdale with two wins last season and are one of only five G-MAC teams to beat the Chargers since Hillsdale joined the league in 2017.