The Hillsdale College women's volleyball team showed extreme heart on the road on Saturday, battling back from the brink of defeat to take down host Cedarville in five hard-fought sets, 17-25, 24-26, 25-19, 25-19, 15-8.

A rough first set that saw the Chargers get badly outhit, and a disappointing ending to a close second set put Hillsdale in an early 2-0 hole to the Yellow Jackets and one set away from their first conference loss. 

But Hillsdale rallied, putting together back-to-back near-flawless hitting sets in sets three and four to even up the match. The Chargers hit .452 with 16 kills and two attack errors in set three, and .361 with 14 kills and just one attack error in set four while forcing Cedarville into 11 attack errors combined across both sets.

In the deciding fifth set, Hillsdale's edge at the service line proved to be the difference, as senior Lauren Passaglia served three aces as part of an 8-0 run and the Chargers benefited from two service errors by the Yellow Jackets as well. Senior Maizie Brown added three crucial kills and freshman Ellie Fles chipped in two in the fifth set to help Hillsdale cap the comeback.

Hillsdale was out-killed by Cedarville 64-58 in the match, but made up for the difference in efficiency, with five fewer attacke errors, seven more aces and six fewer service errors than their opponents.

Senior Marilyn Popplewell led the way for Hillsdale with another excellent match, finishing with 18 kills and 18 digs for her fifth double-double of the season, and third in a row. Brown chipped in 12 kills, three block assists and two service aces in one of her best offensive matches of the season, and Fles added a career-high nine kills in just her second appearance as a Charger.

Passaglia had another all-around great match for Hillsdale with six kills, four service aces, nine digs and a team-leading 30 assists, and Josie TeSlaa chipped in 18 assists and seven digs as well.

Amanda Hilliker added 11 digs for the Chargers, and Greta Wise chipped in six kills and three block assists as well.

Hillsdale is now 7-1 overall, 2-0 in G-MAC play and one of just five remaining G-MAC unbeatens after the first weekend. The Chargers will go head-to-head with another team who has yet to take a conference loss, division rival Northwood, in a home match on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 1 p.m. for their next outing.

Photo by Kenneth Gaudet