This part of the series covers the 2011 Hillsdale College volleyball season, from Sept. 2-25, 2011

November 27, 2011 – The 2011 season opened in an unbearably hot gym, playing against three nationally ranked opponents, with a schedule that refused to cooperate.

It was Labor Day Weekend in Indianapolis, and the Hillsdale College volleyball team faced a daunting set of four matches, starting with 12th-ranked (and eventually number-one ranked for a time) Minnesota-Duluth. It is not unusual to see three or four teams from Minnesota occupy the top 10 spots in any given NCAA Division II Top 25 poll, so the team knew it would be facing a difficult test right off the bat in the new season.

The first set of the season went shockingly well – for the Chargers. They whipped the Bulldogs 25-14. Thanks primarily to its dominating front-row blocking (thank you, Clara Leutheuser and Lauren Grover), Hillsdale forced Minnesota-Duluth to a .000 hitting percentage in that set.

But the tables quickly turned, and the first match of the season turned into a titanic struggle between two teams ranked in the preseason top 12. The match went five sets, with the Bulldogs prevailing 16-14 in the fifth set. Hillsdale needed time to shake off losing in its first match of the season. As it turned out, time was something the Chargers had plenty of in that first day of the season.

The match schedule at the University of Indianapolis tournament accounted for 90 minutes between the start of each match, with one court in operation. That is an optimistic schedule in the same way that saying Ashlee Crowder has won an award or two in her career.

The tournament got behind schedule almost immediately, thanks to four and five-set matches, and the Chargers’ second match of the day didn’t start until 11:30 p.m. There was some debate over whether to play the match at all, but for the players and coaches on Hillsdale’s team, there was no debate, because of who the opponent was.

The second foe of the season was to be the host school of this tournament, the University of Indianapolis. The Greyhounds program who had eliminated Hillsdale from the national tournament in 2007, 2009 and 2010. The Greyhounds program who owned a five-match winning streak over the Chargers. The Greyhounds program that represented the ultimate mental and physical hurdle for this Hillsdale team that had national championship aspirations.

But before those aspirations could be realized, the players knew the one team they had to beat was Indianapolis, a tough, experienced and resilient team. So what if it was a half hour to midnight? This team didn’t make the trip to Indianapolis to not play the host school, an opponent that embodied so many goals this team had coming into the season.

Naturally, this match went the full five sets. It couldn’t be any other way with Indy, could it? The start time and 90-plus degree temperatures in the gym gave this match a dreamy, surreal quality that is almost impossible to convey in simple words. You had to experience it. You had to be out there, on the court, losing pounds, sweat and energy at an alarming rate. It almost seemed wrong to have a match of this caliber being played out past 1:00 in the morning. But it was all worth it. Because Hillsdale passed the physical test, the mental challenge Indianapolis represented. The Chargers won in set five, 15-7, completing a comeback from a 2-1 deficit in the match.

Leutheuser and Crowder combined for a ridiculous 30 kills and two errors in the match, and Leutheuser tied her own single-match school record with 16 total blocks in the win.

The rest of the tournament went somewhat routinely, compared to the insanity of the first day. Playing on very little sleep, the Chargers showed a renewed mental toughness by dispatching two talented opponents, West Florida and Missouri S&T, in three sets.

Having that draining, but ultimately satisfying weekend behind it, the team then got started on a conference schedule in which every opponent would reserve its best for it. The team opened the GLIAC season with six straight wins until it ran into a buzzsaw wearing the red and gold of Ferris State University.

Like many of its conference mates, Ferris State played one of its best matches against Hillsdale on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 24. As it turned out, the Bulldogs’ best was better than anyone else’s best, as they swept the Chargers in three. For Hillsdale’s seven battle-hardened seniors, it was the first time they were on the wrong end of a 3-0 match since they were freshmen in 2008. It was the kind of loss that could derail the season of even the most talented teams.

If there were any residual effects from that loss, they couldn’t have lasted more than 24 hours, because the next day, Sunday, Sept. 25, the Chargers got back on a winning track with a devastating performance at Grand Valley State, sweeping the Lakers 3-0. It was the ultimate response to the ultimate blow of adversity for a team that was fast building up mental strength that was every bit as considerable as its physical strength.

Coming through a tough three-matches-in-three-days road trip through the three toughest venues in the GLIAC North Division, the Chargers were now primed to enter the second phase of their season, determined to put together their combination of skill and experience to piece together an unforgettable season…

continued in Part II.....