The Hillsdale men’s tennis team lost to the Grand Valley State University Lakers while visiting its courts last Saturday.
The Lakers dominated the doubles matches winning all three. Hillsdale had two wins in singles, but Grand Valley won the rest and took home the victory 5-2.
Senior Tyler Conrad said that the away crowd was tough to deal with.
“We’re not used to people cheering, like screaming for 15 seconds during one of our points. That’s just not something that we’re used to having,” Conrad said. “A yell here and there is what we’re used to. But when it’s consistent every couple points, it can get kind of distracting.”
The Chargers failed to pick up any doubles victories.
“Overall, I think our doubles will be changing from now on. This has always been a struggle for us, and I think our coach realizes things need to change,” junior Brennan Cimpeanu said. “He’s got some plans for this week, and what we’re going to change up and switch around so that’ll be fun to watch and see how that plays out this weekend.”
Both the No. 1 doubles team, junior Sean Barstow and Cimpeanu, and the No. 2 doubles team, senior Brian Hackman and freshman Nik Wastcoat, lost 2-6. At No. 3 doubles, freshman Aidan Pack and Conrad lost 5-7.
“Doubles did not go well,” Barstow said. “Starting off with a loss like that in doubles in all three spots didn’t help, but I think we did a good job of bouncing back after that and playing good singles.”
No. 1 singles Cimpeanu and No. 5 singles Barstow claimed their points for the Chargers, scoring 6-2, 6-1 and 6-4, 6-4 respectively.
Cimpeanu said Pack fought hard at No. 2 singles for his point, taking the match to a tie-break game after scoring 5-7, 2-6, 6-4, but losing 4-7.
“We have our freshmen stepping up and filling in this void that we need or matching the team’s environment, maybe even boosting us up a little bit when we see how much high energy he has,” Cimpeanu said.“We’re watching him and we’re like ‘this guy is good, and he’s gonna help us throughout the rest of the season.’”
No. 3 and No. 6 singles Hackman and Gilbert also took their matches to tie-breaks, but came up short, scoring 2-6, 6-4, 4-6 and 5-7, 6-2, 10-5 respectively. Conrad’s No. 4 singles ended in a 3-6, 4-6 loss.
Conrad and Cimpeanu both said the team was affected by the rowdy heckling of their opponents.
“It motivated me because it was a minor attack on my character, so in a way it annoyed me and aggravated me which just made me play a lot better to kind of prove who I am,” Cimpeanu said.
The Chargers will head to Springfield, Illinois, March 4 to play against the University of Illinois at 1 p.m. before traveling to St. Louis, Missouri, March 5 to battle against the University of Missouri at 11 a.m.
