November 7, 2008 - The six-match winning streak by the Hillsdale College volleyball team came to an end Friday night, as the Chargers lost to Northwood University, 3-1 at Hillsdale's Jesse Philips Arena.

Hillsdale is now 8-7 in the GLIAC and 19-9 overall, and is tied for second place in the GLIAC South Division. With the win, Northwood took sole possession of first place in the division, and is 9-6 in conference play.

Hillsdale won the first set, 25-23. Northwood came back to win the final three sets, two of them very closely played. The Timberwolves won the second set 25-22, the third set 25-15, and the fourth set 27-25.

Hillsdale played a strong opening set, sreading the kills around to six different players, and hitting a high percentage. However, the Timberwolves combined excellent defensive play with accurate hitting to take control of the match midway through the second set.

Northwood hit .361 and .345 in the second and third sets respectively, converting a combined 29 kills with just six errors. The Timberwolves nearly matched that in the fourth set, registering 12 kills with just four errors.

After dominating the third set, Northwood was challenged hard by Hillsdale in the fourth set. After a kill by senior Stephanie Booms, the Chargers took a 13-10 lead. But Northwood responded with six straight points to take a three-poitn deficit and turn it into a three-point lead. Only two of those six points by Northwood came on kills. The other four points came off errors by the Chargers.

Hillsdale came back to tie the set 20-20, and the match was tightly and well-played by both teams from that point. A kill by freshman Ashlee Crowder gave Hillsdale a 25-24 lead, and a chance to force a fifth set. But Northwood rallied to score the last three consecutive points to clinch the match.

Junior Emily Bennett was Hillsdale's most effective offensive player, leading the team with 12 kills and a .435 attack percentage. Crowder added nine kills, while junior Kitt Smith had nine kills and two block assists.

Booms, who was one of the team's three seniors honored on Senior Night, had a superb statistical match with seven kills, 39 assists and 13 digs. She committed just one attack error, hitting .429 for the match.

Sophomore Sydney Dow, the GLIAC leader in digs per set, had 32 to lead all players. Freshman Apryl Schmucker played one of her best all-around matches with seven kills, five assists, 10 digs and seven perfect serve receptions.

The Chargers will host Wayne State University at 2 p.m. Saturday. To view the match statistics from Friday's match, click on the link below.

Match statistics