October 16, 2009 - Playing with poise and control, the Hillsdale College volleyball team earned a 3-0 win over St. Joseph's College in the first match of the two-day GLIAC/GLVC Challenge at the Aim High facility in Lansing.

In the second match of the day, Hillsdale played brilliantly before losing to 12th-ranked Indianapolis, 3-2 in an extremely well-played match by both teams.



The Chargers hit .387 as a team in winning the sets by scores of 25-15, 25-15 and 25-14. Junior Amanda Bigney led the team with 11 kills and hit an impressive .474 for the match.

Sophomore Apryl Schmucker also played well, getting 27 assists, seven kills, four service aces and six digs. She hit .545 for the match.

The Chargers had 13 service aces and committed just nine attack errors in the match. Sophomore Clara Leutheuser added seven kills and had a solo block and three block assists. Junior Sydney Dow led the Chargers with 19 digs, while sophomore Amanda Geelhoed had two kills, two block assists and two digs. Freshman Lauren Grover had two solo blocks and freshman Kaleigh Shuster had four perfect serves in limited time.

Indianapolis 3, Hillsdale 2
In the most competitive match on Friday's slate, two of the top three teams at the crossover tournament paired up for an outstanding volleyball match.

Indianapolis improved to 25-1 on the season thanks to a 3-2 win over the Chargers. The Greyhounds won a very tightly played first set 26-24 before losing a pair of 25-20 sets to Hillsdale in the second and third sets. Indy rallied for a 25-22 win in the fourth set and used that momentum to close out Hillsdale, 15-5 in the fifth set.

The Greyhounds are a terrific defensive team, and were able to dig out many hard attack attempts by the Chargers. But Hillsdale also played at a very high level, pushing Indy like few teams have all season.

Crowder, Leutheuser and Bigney all had 13 kills in the match to lead the Chargers. Hillsdale hit .310 and .205 in the two sets it won, but was held to a team hitting percentage of .114 or lower in the three it lost.

Schmucker had 44 assists to go along with six kills, 14 digs and four block assists. Leutheuser had a season-high seven block assists, and Dow led the team with 26 digs.

Northern Kentucky 3, Hillsdale 1
In Saturday's lone match at the challenge, the Chargers again played well, but were outdone by a talented team who played better.

NKU won the match by scores of 27-25, 25-17, 20-25, 25-21. The Chargers led the fourth set from start to finish, and a tightly played first set featured 11 tie scores.

Leutheuser had 13 kills, three solo blocks and three block assists to lead the Hillsdale offense. Senior Emily Bennett had five block assists, while Crowder tacked on 13 kills. Bigney had 11 kills for Hillsdale.

Dow, who was named to the All-Tournament Team, had a team-high 16 digs. Schmucker was once again was near a triple double, with seven kills, nine digs and 39 assists.
To view the box scores from the weekend's matches, please click on the link below.

Chargers 3, St. Joseph's 0
Indianapolis 3, Chargers 2
Northern Kentucky 3, Chargers 1