The Hillsdale College women’s tennis team lost to Ferris State University 2-5 during an away match on Feb. 21.
Senior Sophia Spinazze said having played against Ferris State for 3 years, she was prepared for difficult competition.
“They have good talent and the determination to grind out tough matches. I give them a lot of credit, but also tried to not be afraid or nervous to play them,” Spinazze said. “Our team saw this match as a great opportunity to face tough competition and better our own skills through playing them.”
Ferris State is a challenging opponent for the Chargers, according to freshman Libby McGivern.
“I think the team did a great job against one of our toughest competitors and that we had a bunch of really close matches and that it really could’ve gone either way,” McGivern said.
After losing her first set against Parker Nolan 3-6, Libby McGivern ultimately won her singles match, finishing her second and third sets 7-6 (7-4) and 6-4.
Everyone who played a third set “fought down to the last point,” McGivern said.
“I was talking to my coach about changeovers and she was giving me good advice, telling me I was right there and that I just needed to get a couple more points,” McGivern said.
During her second set, she and Parker fought “neck and neck” to win the set — McGivern ultimately came out on top.
“Libby was able to win and turn around being down and in the match and then coming back and winning,” junior Canela Luna said.
By the third set, she said, both she and Parker were tired, yet neither wanted to give up and let the other win the match.
“I wish I would have moved forward more into the court when I came up and played at the net that worked really well and took time away from her,” McGivern said. “I think I stayed back at the baseline too much which elongated our point a lot which added to my exhaustion. I was able to pull it out at the end which was really exciting.”
Luna and senior Sophia Spinazze excelled in their doubles match, winning 6-2 against Parker Nolan and Agata Klak.
“To go up 4-1 we won a deuce game, which is a win by one situation, when their better server was serving, which was a very big confidence boost for us,” Spinazze said.
The turning point of the game, Spinazze said, was when her opponents took over the serve and bumped the score up to 4-2.
“That put a ton more pressure on us for that game because all they needed to do was hold serve and Canela and I would lose a lot of our lead and momentum,” Spinazze said. “We ended up breaking them back and that really propelled us to serve out the final game and win the match.”
Spinazze said she wished she would have switched up her strategy during her second singles set. Though she lost her singles match 3-6, 6-4, and 10-6, she said she plans to use the setback to prepare for future competition.
“I had been controlling play before that point, but after that changed I could have done better about adjusting my strategy and finding a new way to win,” Spinazze said.
Although she felt she did well in her doubles match, Luna said she got too discouraged during her singles match, which affected her performance.
“It was nice to at least have one win from doubles going into the main singles,” Luna said. “My goals going into the match were to hit out more on the ball and not to overthink it. I feel like I definitely accomplished that in doubles which is why we played so well. In singles, I did it halfway but then halfway through the match I kind of reverted and that’s partially why I lost the match.”
Luna said another great moment from the match was watching Ellie Chawner beat her tiebreaker against Kennedy Dumas 10-0.
“She pretty much made no mistakes ten points in a row,” Luna said.
Next, the team will compete against Northwood University at Hillsdale College on Feb. 27, 4 p.m.
McGivern said in the upcoming match, she hopes she and her teammates are able to advance to playing third sets just like they did when playing against Ferris State.
“My goals are to just be excited for every match to be like that, to want every match to go down to the last point where it could quite literally go either way just based off of a couple points,” McGivern said. “Embrace the challenge and have everyone pull out those long matches. I think that’s the most fun part about college tennis.”
