After a decade long hiatus, the Hillsdale College men’s tennis team made a strong statement in their fall revival.
The return came on Sept. 19 when the Chargers took part in a three-day Intercollegiate Tennis Association regional, a tournament which focuses on individual bracket style tournaments rather than team scores.
The field was divided into two draws, both of which were broken into singles and doubles.
In the A flight, lone sophomore Dugan Delp had a strong showing, beating Brendan Peterson of Lewis 6-1, 6-0 in the round of 32 before topping Roman Laga of Southern Indiana 6-0, 2-6, 10-5 in the round of 16. Delp’s run came to an end in the round of 16 when he fell 6-0, 6-0 to the eventual A champion Arklon Huertas del Pino from University of Indianapolis.
Freshman Justin Hyman and Gianpiero Placidi both fell in the first round of A singles, while Delp and Hyman dropped their first A doubles match.
Despite the early loss, Placidi was encouraged by the weekend.
“It was good to go straight in and get an idea of the level of the conference,” he said. “After seeing everyone we certainly feel like we are one of the stronger teams.”
In the B flight, freshman John Ciraci made a run of his own, defeating Walsh’s Christian Henderson 6-2, 6-4 in the first round, followed by a 6-1, 3-6, 10-7 victory over Aaron Barris of Southern Indiana, and a 6-3, 4-6, 10-6 victory against McKendree’s Ross Paul. Ciraci finally fell in the quarterfinals to Paul Forichon of Southern Indiana.
“I was extremely happy with how we played that first weekend,” head coach Keith Turner said. “I think we went out there and made a name for ourselves.”
After the ITA tournament, the Chargers turned their attention to the Bulldog Invitational, which took place in Big Rapids, Michigan.
The Chargers, who ended the day in second, were joined in Big Rapids by GLIAC rivals Ferris State, Lake Superior State, and Michigan Tech.
The match was split into eight flights for singles and four flights for doubles.
In Flight 1 singles, Delp split the first two sets with Built Yumuang of Michigan Tech before defeating Yumuang in the tie-breaker. Delp then fell to Vasil Surduk of Ferris State and Lake Superior’s Jake Prime.
Hyman and Ciraci both took two of three matches in Flights 2 and 4 singles respectively, while Placidi took his first match, but dropped the following two in Flight 3.
Freshman Peter Lyngdal took his final two matches after dropping his first match in Flight 5, while fellow freshman Zac Rabitoy was able to win his first two matches in Flight 6 before dropping his third.
Freshman Jerry Hewitt was able to recover from two early losses in Flight 7, winning 6-1, 6-1 over Lake Superior’s Conner Allen in his third match.
“Ferris is nationally ranked, and we were right there in a lot of matches,” Ciraci said. “We competed hard, and it was good to see that we’re above the average level of the conference.”
For the Chargers, doubles proved to be a new challenge, as most of the players have spent a majority of their career playing singles.
“In Michigan, the best players pretty much just play singles all the way up, so it was something new for a lot of our guys,” Turner said.
In Flight 1 doubles, Delp and Hyman were able to take two of three matches, with Placidi and Ciraci doing the same in Flight 2.
In Flight 3, Rabitoy and Lyngdal tallied a victory in their second match, which was bookended by two defeats.
Hewitt teamed up with Maiz Sinclair of Ferris State to win two of three matches in Flight 4 doubles.
This weekend marked the end of the fall season for the Chargers, but it doesn’t mean a break for the team.
“In the off-season we need to work on some things,” Turner said. “Our doubles needs some work, and we are going to be getting in the weight room, especially to work on our upper-body strength.”
The Chargers hope this new-found strength to carry over this fall’s success into the championship season in the spring.