The Hillsdale College women’s tennis team crushed Cedarville University 7-0 in a home match on April 2 for the Chargers’ third straight victory in its final home match of the season.
Junior Canela Luna said her personal success came from maintaining a peaceful yet focused mental state. As for the team as a whole, she said she felt the success lay in the team’s strategy.
“On a team level, our coach really emphasized getting our serves in, getting the point started, because we are very capable of out-rallying any other player,” Luna said. “She wanted us to make sure that we can get into those rallys, so that was definitely a main focus.”
Luna won her doubles match with senior Sophia Spinazze 6-1. The women played against Megan VanDyke and Payton Krahn.
“Sophia and I work very well together during doubles,” Luna said, “We laugh together, we are able to refocus, we don’t get mad at each other.”
Luna dominated her singles match, defeating opponent Faith Triplett 6-0 6-0.
“My match ended when everyone else was going into their second set,” Luna said. “That was a pretty cool moment for me because normally I take forever. It was nice to be the first one done for the first time in a very long time.”
Freshman Melanie Zampardo worked with senior Sarah Hackman to beat Lauren Hollis and Abby Totten 6-1. In her singles match, Zampardo won 6-3 6-1.
“A couple times when I was frustrated during my singles match, it was great to look at the courts next to me and see my teammates fighting in their matches,” Zampardo said. “That always encourages me to keep fighting.”
In her doubles match, freshman Libby McGivern worked with junior Ellie Chawner to take down Joelle Petek and Faith Triplett 6-0.
“Just about every moment that I play doubles with Ellie is so much fun,” McGivern said.
In her singles match, McGivern won 6-3 2-6 6-0.
“My favorite moment was coming back in the third set after having lost the second,” McGivern said. “ I really focused on just forgetting the second set on that changeover and told myself to go out there and win. I was able to close it out pretty quickly.”
Heading toward the end of the season, the team will make a few minor changes in their practices to lighten the workload and prepare for harder games.
“On Mondays, we don’t have as long of a practice usually,” Luna said. “We might just go to a lifting session instead of hitting the ball for a super long time. During practice, we play some more point play to get ready for those long, hard matches that we’re going to have. It’s just maybe a little lighter and a little more point focused so that we can get mentally prepared.”
Zampardo said she’s looking forward to some of the more difficult matches that are coming up.
“We have a couple of tough matches coming up against Tiffin and Findlay this weekend,” Zampardo said. “I hope we can continue this streak and come out on top.”