Men’s tennis set to begin inaugural season

Home Sports Men’s tennis set to begin inaugural season

On September 19, the Hillsdale College men’s tennis team will suit up six freshmen and one sophomore for the program’s first match in over a decade.

It was announced in August of 2014 that Hillsdale would revive the men’s tennis program and that head coach Keith Turner would be trusted at the helm.

“I am very happy that I was the guy that was chosen to do it,” Turner said. “I have had a lot of experience leading up to this, and I am certainly happy with how it is going so far.  I feel like I am finally at a place where I would like to be for a long time.”

Having played at both Boston University and Western Michigan University, Turner is certainly justified in citing his experience.  More recently, he has served on the coaching staff of Albion College and as the head coach of Limestone College in South Carolina.

The team, which will compete in the GLIAC regular season in the spring, is coming into the season with a chip on their shoulders.

“We are looking forward to the challenge of trying to show other teams what we are,” freshman John Ciraci said. “We are such a young team, and so I don’t think the other teams will expect us to be a great team, but I think we’ll surprise them.”

Despite the high expectations that ring throughout the program, Turner understands that this year is only a pushing-off point.

“We aren’t going to win the GLIAC or anything this year, but we plan on being able to compete with those guys,” Turner said. “When these guys are seniors I would really like to be a the point that we can get a regional ranking and look at an NCAA tournament berth.

The Chargers didn’t start practice until this week, but that didn’t stop the hungry young team from beginning their preparation.

“The freshman have been out hitting with each other every single day since coming to campus,” sophomore Dugan Delp said. “We all just can’t wait for practices to start.”

As the only member of the team with experience around Hillsdale, Delp has naturally fallen into a type of leadership role. The freshmen all stressed his importance in helping them feel at home on campus.

As is the case with every program on campus, these young men decided to come to Hillsdale for more than just their sport.

“The overall package at Hillsdale was just better than anywhere else,” Ciraci said.  “Obviously there are great tennis opportunities here, but the academic opportunities are greater than other places as well.”

The team’s fall season will consist of two tournaments before traveling to Iowa to face Davenport University in a dual match.  While these matches are not part of the regular season, they still factor into the team’s regional and national ranking.

Come spring, the men will have 15 dual matches, six of which will be at home.

“We would love to see some support,” Ciraci said.  “I think people would be surprised how much fun tennis matches are.”