Playing its first two away matches of the season, the Hillsdale College women’s tennis team fell to Grand Valley 8-1 on Saturday and Ferris State 7-2 on Sunday. This is the first weekend the team has lost both matches. The losses bring their overall season record to 3-3.
Saturday’s match against Grand Valley was “really tough” according to head coach Nikki Walbright.
“They were hard competition, the girls know that we can perform better, but they definitely had a good fight,” Walbright said. “I was proud of them.”
Freshman Corinne Prost provided the sole win for the Chargers at No. 4 singles with a decisive 6-1, 6-1 victory. Prost is now 7-2 overall and 4-1 in singles.
While gaining no additional wins, all doubles matches were tight. At No. 1 doubles, seniors Sydney Delp and Lindsay Peirce lost 8-4. Junior Dana Buck teamed up with Prost for a tough loss in a tiebreak set, leaving match score at 9-8 and 7-3 for the tiebreaker. Freshmen Halle Hyman and Julia Formentin fell just short with a 9-7 loss at No. 3 doubles.
On Sunday, after traveling multiple hours, the Chargers challenged and fell to Ferris State.
Once again, Prost proved valuable to the Charger’s line-up with another win at No. 3 singles. Following her classmate’s lead, Formentin also earned a 6-2, 6-4 victory at No. 6 singles.
“Corinne and I were both very happy with our wins,” Formentin said. “I was excited that I was able to represent my team in this way.”
Two of the doubles matches were tight, but the Bulldogs pulled out all three wins. Delp and Peirce fell 8-6, while Prost and Buck lost 9-7. Formentin and Madeline Bissett dropped their match 8-3.
Peirce said that while she was disappointed with the losses, the tough competition this weekend allowed the team to see the good aspects of their game as well as other aspects that need to be refined.
“What is most important to take away from weekends like this are the positive things and what we did well,” Peirce said. “We need to be able to see the good things and continue to build on those for the weekends to come.”
As the second half of the season quickly approaches, the team looks forward to preparing for the ITA tournament which will take place in Indianapolis this weekend. The tournament allows athletes to play at an individual level without the pressure of competing for a qualifying place in the GLIAC championship.
“We will definitely take it match by match. We really just have to focus on the second half of the season and come on strong to beat the teams that we have for the next four matches,” Walbright said. “The ITAs will be nice to relax, play tennis, get into a groove, and then get excited to come back to dual-match play.”
