Hillsdale Knights back in the saddle in PAL Bay Division volleyball opener

Setter Rianna Liu and middle hitter Vivian Gilbert are the only two returning starters this year. But Hillsdale (1-0 PAL Bay, 8-3 overall) didn’t miss a beat in Thursday’s Bay Division opener, rolling to its 15th straight league win dating back to last year 25-18, 25-20, 25-22 over Carlmont in a sweltering hot Zugelder Gym.

“Very pleased with the results,” Hillsdale head coach Dwight Crump said. “I love the fight the girls had, they never gave up. They gave it everything they could do in a gym that’s 105 (degrees).”

Whereas last year’s Hillsdale squad would see double-digit kill performances from Vanos and Dean on a regular basis, this year’s tack is a more rounded approach. Senior middle Ella Jensen paced with offense with a match-high nine kills, while sophomore outside Natasha Abbaszadeh recorded eight, Gilbert had seven, and senior opposite Rachel Reed totaled six.

But the most dynamic performance came from senior outside hitter Ashley Driscoll, who fired six kills and four aces, including five kills in the opening set to put Hillsdale in the driver’s seat.

“She played amazing today, I was really proud of her,” senior setter Rianna Liu said. “She’s been building up strength this whole summer and I’ve seen it pay off on the court. Very good vertical and strong arm.”

At 5-8, Driscoll isn’t your prototypical outside hitter. But the vertical leap and strong arm were on display in Game 1, when she rotated into the front and led the Knights back from an early deficit. Carlmont took leads of 3-1 and 4-2.

Abbaszadeh — who is also 5-8 — fronted a five-point run with a kill through the middle to give Hillsdale its first lead at 5-4. Then after a back-and-forth opening had the score tied 11-11, Driscoll tooled the block with a rocket off the left side. It sparked an 8-1 run for the Knights.

“Ashley and Natasha play like they’re 6-9,” Crump said. “And that’s the big difference. They don’t play small, they play big, and they can execute. So, if people underestimate them, they’re wrong. They’re just dynamite, awesome players.”

Carlmont (0-1, 4-4) has a talented defensive front, with senior middle Amanda Fraser scoring a match-high three blocks. But Hillsdale countered with its array of hitters and faster offense than they ever ran last year, this to take advantage of the fast feet of their shorter hitters.

“Since our offense is a little bit more undersized than last year, I think we’ve sped up our offense a lot more than last year,” Liu said. “They hitters are quite new. I would say they’re less experienced than our hitters last year. And we’ve just tried speeding up our play so we can take advantage of their fast feet against the other side.”

In Game 2, Carlmont took another early lead thanks to an early Fraser block, but facing a 6-5 deficit, Hillsdale went on a 10-1 run. Gilbert hammered a kill through the middle to tie it. Then after one of Carlmont’s 21 unforced errors in the match gave the Knights the lead, the 6-4 middle Jensen scored a block to keep her team rolling.

Driscoll fired two aces in the second set and added two more in the third, before Jensen took over late. Hillsdale was clinging to a 19-17 lead when Jensen picked up her first kill of the set. She would finish with five kills in Game 3, including a tip through the middle to end it.

Liu was fluid and exact setting Hillsdale’s 5-1 offense, finishing with two dump kills and three service aces.

“From having her be our setter last year to this year, she really sets the expectations for us as pins, or even passers, or anything,” Driscoll said. “She’s really good about giving some kinds of corrections to her sets in a really helpful way instead of a degrading way. And she’s really been really the glue to everybody, and I love her for that.”

Driscoll’s patience is paying off. She didn’t see the court much last season, and certainly didn’t play as a six-rotation presence the way she did Thursday. She was full aware of the advantageous perspective she had last season, watching the two best hitters in the PAL work on a daily basis. Although, as Driscoll insists, she wasn’t merely watching.

“I would say more learning from people because I knew I had to prepare for this year,” Driscoll said. “Having Jess and Victoria as role models, and having them go on to play at DI schools, and having them be such icons in my eyes, and playing their position … it was really more of a learning experience instead of just sitting there watching.”

Now, she’s thrilled to be on the court fulltime.

“I love getting as much playing time as I can,” Driscoll said. “I like being able to still have to work for is, because I know there’s still people fighting for it as well. My teammates deserve to be on the court just as much as I do. And I think no matter who’s on, or what position … we all play well together as a team, so I love that we have that chemistry to sub out for anybody.”