Sept. 16, 2009 - The first home weekend for the Hillsdale College volleyball team is coming up this weekend, as the Chargers will host matches against two GLIAC South Division title contenders.

Friday night, the top two teams in the GLIAC South Division will face off at Jesse Philips Arena, as the Chargers take on Wayne State University starting at 7 p.m. At 2:00 Saturday afternoon, Hillsdale will host the defending division champion Northwood University.

After its 3-0 win over the University of Findlay Tuesday night, the Chargers are 3-0 in GLIAC play and hold a one-game lead in the South Division over Wayne State. Both the Chargers and Warriors are 10-1 on the season and are in the "others receiving votes" section of the AVCA Division II Top 25 poll.

Hillsdale went a combined 0-5 vs. Wayne State and Northwood last season, which ultimately denied the Chargers a third straight GLIAC South Division championship and a fifth straight spot in the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament. The Warriors ended Hillsdale's 2008 season with a 3-1 win in the first round of the GLIAC Tournament.

The Timberwolves are off to a tough start to the 2009 season, with an 0-3 conference record and 2-9 overall mark. Northwood lost to Wayne State, 3-2, at home Tuesday night.

The match vs. Wayne State will feature two of the most powerful offenses in the GLIAC going against one another. Hillsdale's Ashlee Crowder leads the GLIAC in kills per set (4.23), and had perhaps the best match of her career Tuesday against the Oilers, getting 22 kills with just two errors.

She will be matched up against Wayne State's Sarha Gosselin and Lauren Mallast, one of the strongest 1-2 hitting combinations on any team in the conference. The Chargers had swept the season series from the Warriors from 2004-07, only to lose all three matches against WSU last year.

Northwood is led by Sladjana Mitrovic, who has 138 kills in the team's first 11 matches of the season.

Six of Hillsdale's 10 wins this season have come in 3-0 sweeps. The team is second in the GLIAC in both hitting percentage and opponents' hitting percentage, and leads the conference in kills and digs as a team. The Chargers' 10-1 start is the best for the program since 2006, and the team is nine wins shy of its sixth straight season of 19 wins or more.