Huskies win 10th straight with sweep of Hillsdale

HAMMOND, Ind. – No. 25 Michigan Tech swept No. 17 Hillsdale Saturday (Oct. 16) at the Midwest Region Crossover to win its 10th straight and third on the weekend. The Huskies won 25-15, 25-23 and 27-25 at the Hammond Sportsplex to snap Hillsdale's 16-game winning streak.

"To say this was a big weekend for our program would be a bit of an understatement," Tech coach Matt Jennings said. "The confidence that comes from performing the way we did against these quality teams is priceless. I'm impressed with the balance and poise we played with as we battled out there, never giving up or getting rattled under pressure.  No doubt about it, we came down here and made a statement and put ourselves in a very strong position in the region."

Tech jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first set off the serve of Anna Jonynas and never looked back, using a 7-0 run later in the frame to take a commanding 22-11 advantage. Janie Grindland had the final kill for the 25-15 win. Olivia Ghormley had four kills in the opening set, and the Huskies blocked four attacks by the Chargers.

"Anna starting off the match with those serves really set the tone for us and seemed to put Hillsdale on their heels a bit," added Jennings. "We did a really fine job serving them just out of system enough to neutralize their very strong in system attack. Our defense once again did excellent work by limiting a strong offense's key scorers. Laura did a very good job distributing the ball and getting the right hitters going at the right times. Morgan got the nod in this one and took full advantage of the opportunity, scoring on both sides of the ball all match. Anna and Jill were lights out at the pins, as Olivia did her part coming up with clutch points at key moments."

The Huskies never trailed in the second set, holding the Chargers off each time they made a run. Tech held a setpoint lead at 24-20 before Hillsdale go three kills in a row. Tech turned to the program's all-time kills leader in Ghormley and she capitalized to make it a 2-0 lead in favor of the Huskies with a 25-23 win. Jonynas and Morgan Radtke each had five kills in the second.

The teams battled through nine ties in the third. Hillsdale scored three straight points to take a setpoint lead, 25-24. Tech responded. Laura De Marchi and Radtke teamed up for a block and then Jonynas hammered down back-to-back kills for the 27-25 win and the 12th sweep of the season for the Huskies. Tech hit .429 in the third and forced Hillsdale into seven attacking errors.

"The passing we got today, and versus Lewis, absolutely made a huge difference in the outcome," said Jennings. "Passing was on point and gave us the kind of side-out play needed to beat teams like these.

"It's quite exciting to see this group work together out there trying to get better each week. We're thrilled with how this weekend went and what it means for our team. That said, we're now focused on the second half of conference play and getting better one week at a time."

Four Huskies were in double figures offensively with Jonynas (15 kills), Jillian Kuizenga (11), Radtke (10), and Ghormley (10) leading the way. De Marchi set the attack with 39 assists and added 10 digs. Carissa Beyer led the defense with 17 digs.

It was the second straight season that the Huskies went 3-0 at the Crossover. The Huskies are winners of 14 of the last 15 matches and get back to GLIAC play next weekend at Parkside (Oct. 22) and Purdue Northwest (Oct. 23).