The Hillsdale College men’s tennis team will compete this weekend for the first time since September, and head coach Keith Turner said he hopes the team will be healthy by then.
“I love the overall attitude and competitiveness that I have on this year’s team, everyone gets along,” Turner said. “It’s just a great group of guys to work with.”
Turner said the biggest challenge will be working with the current injuries of senior Ivanhoe Lissanevitch and sophomore Bogdan Janicijevic, as well as avoiding COVID-19 so the team doesn’t have to forfeit any matches.
“At the start of the semester I expected us to be a team that would be a borderline top-25 team in the nation,” Turner said. “However, I’m waiting on MRIs from my best player Ivan and an improving Bogdan.”
Turner said he hopes in a few days they will have the results back.
“Regardless of what happens, we’ll still have a solid team,” Turner said.
Although three talented seniors on the team graduated last year, Turner said there are three freshmen ─ Brennan Cimpeanu, Sean Barstow, and Daniel Gilbert ─ who will be solid contributors this season.
“We should be able to get far in the G-MAC championships, hopefully winning it, and performing well at regionals,” Cimpeanu said. “The end goal would be to make nationals.”
Cimpeanu said the team has a much closer community, which is a contrast to his high school team.
“I’m excited to see what this team is like on the court when we start next weekend,” Turner said. “I know we are going to fight for every point and no team is going to look forward to playing us.”
Cimpeanu said tennis is already socially distanced, so there isn’t a lot of change in rules and playing regulations due to COVID-19.
“The only thing we have to limit is our high fives on the court,” Cimpeanu said. “To be honest, it’s a blessing to compete at all considering the restrictions.”
The Chargers will compete at home on Saturday Feb. 13 at noon against Lawrence Tech, and Sunday Feb. 14 at noon against Davenport University.
