Across the state of Illinois, the Hillsdale College men’s tennis team experienced a win and a loss last weekend, falling to McKendree University 6-3 but salvaging a close 5-4 win at Illinois-Springfield.
As the Chargers progress into the season, they will hit some hard matches in the weeks to come.
“The level of play was as expected,” sophomore Dugan Delp said. “We knew they’d both be good teams. I’m really proud of how we played, the coaches too. There were definite opportunities to win in the match that we lost on Friday.”
After the initial loss on Friday, and with a six-hour drive home after Saturday’s game, the team was less than enthused at the possibility of a second loss.
“We were only playing on three courts,” Delp said. “So it was taking a long time, and we were down 2-4 and our No. 1, 2, and 3 singles all lost, so our 4, 5, and 6 singles all had to win, and they did. We watched the other team go from excitement to complete despair, so that was great.”
At No. 5 singles, Zach Rabitoy dramatically recovered from a second-set 6-0 loss with a 6-4 win in the third set, playing a crucial role in Saturday’s victory.
“That was definitely one of the matches I’m going to remember for my career,” Rabitoy said. “I had a combination of excitement that I was about to come back after the second set. Being at that point for a tennis player is often demoralizing. I was in disbelief that I was able to do that because he came into that third set with a lot of energy, playing well. The entire third set was hard all the way. That was a pinnacle game, and during third and five set he couldn’t return my serves at all.”
As the roar of the crowd joined the yell of the players, Rabitoy said his excitement began to grow. Those are the games that you play for, he said.
At No. 4 and No. 6 singles, freshmen John Ciraci and Jerry Hewitt, respectively, won in straight sets.
In No. 1 doubles, Justin Hyman and Dugan Delp pulled through with a close win on Saturday at 9-8, which was important to the team win.
“The second day we won two of the doubles,” Delp said. “It was nice that we were playing indoors, because we haven’t had much experience playing outside. We are very excited to be playing outside now that it’s finally nice out.”
