The trip began a few days after losses to Grand Valley and Ferris State, in which the Chargers lost 7-2 and 9-0 respectively.
“Those were our first league conference matches and they are consistently the top of the conference, not necessarily one and two,” sophomore Dugan Delp said. “We played well, competed well, and lost both. We have a better idea now what they’re like.”
With the cold weather and the loss behind them, the Chargers headed to matches against great competition. Despite the difficulty of the match, the Chargers took a 6-3 win against Erskine, but suffered an 8-1 loss against Flagler.
“The goal was that we were hoping to get the win against Erskine, and we did,” head coach Keith Turner said. “It’s good going forward because we had some really good competition. Coming up we have seven conference matches with teams we know we can complete with.”
Turner also noted that Flagler was most likely the most difficult team they will play all year.
Despite the overall loss, Delp came up with a strong win against No. 34 Lukas Storck, 6-4, 6-2.
“Their team was No. 14 overall, and so we were really excited about my win and how well Justin Hyman played and his match,” Delp said. “His opponent was around No. 20.”
“The best teams aren’t necessarily at the top of their line up, they’re just deep with good players.”
Delp said the the warmer South Carolina weather was a bit of a challenge for the team.
“We’ve been conditioning pretty hard,” Delp said. “Pat Gifford, the strength and conditioning coach they just hired, has been good, so we were ready.”
Turner was far from pessimistic about the weekend, noting some large strides he has already seen his team take.
“We have a really good base, we have some pieces. We’ve been getting lots of praise that we’re as good as we are as a first-year team,” Turner said. “Honestly, with the competition that we played — our doubles have improved — but it’s hard to get a true evaluation of where we’re at with the tough matches, but definitely going to be a positive thing. We don’t play teams as hard as that in the future. It bodes very well for us with matches in the future.”