The Chargers lost three days of matches to Rollins College, St. Leo University, and Findlay University on the road last week. 

Two weekends ago they faced two Florida teams before making the return trip, playing an in-conference opponent on the way last weekend. With losses of 6-1, 7-0, and 4-3, the Chargers have fallen to an 8-5 overall win-loss record.   

Despite the challenge of top-ranked teams and indoor and outdoor differences the Chargers competed well against the country’s No. 1 team. 

“We played two tough teams,” junior Brennan Cimpeanu said. “On paper, we were expected to lose just because we’re playing a really, really good team outdoors in the heat and in the sun that we weren’t used to. But overall, I think we just competed really well.”

In the Sunday match versus Rollins, the doubles point went to Hillsdale’s opponent. No. 1 team, Cimpeanu and senior Brian Hackman, lost 3-6, No. 2 team, junior Sean Barstow and Junior Tyler Conrad, lost 3-7, and No. 3 team, freshman Aidan Pack and junior Daniel Gilbert lost 3-6. 

Gilbert said it was a challenge to play on, and adjust to, outdoor courts. 

“The bounce is higher, the ball moves a lot slower, people hit with a lot more topspin,” Gilbert said. “We’ve been playing indoors, we’re in Michigan all season, we’re already at a pretty big disadvantage against those teams that have just been playing outside all year round.”

No. 5 singles, Barstow, won the only point that day for the Chargers in a 6-2, 6-2 match. No. 1 Cimpeanu’s sets were 6-2, 1-6, 2-6, No. 2 Pack’s 0-6, 2-6, No. 3 Hackman’s 0-6, 0-6, and No. 6 Gilbert’s 4-6, 4-6. 

“I think in Florida again, just the heat got to me my first match,” Cimpeanu said. “The second match, I played No. 3 in the nation, who is just an excellent player. And although it doesn’t seem close on paper, just the score was quite bad, the points were very close.”

No. 4 Conrad lost 2-6, 4-6 in his singles match after injuring his right wrist in his doubles match. 

“I was at the net in doubles, and the guy hit a shot,” Conrad said. “He just whipped it at me as hard as he could, and it caught the frame of my racket, and my wrist just hyperextended the wrong way. It was a very minor sprain, fortunately, but it was enough to keep me out for a couple of matches.”

Monday’s match versus St. Leo saw a doubles loss for the Chargers as well. No. 1 Cimpeanu and Barstow at 2-6, No. 2 Hackman and Wastcoat at 2-5, and No. 3 Pack and Gilbert at 2-6. 

“It’s always fun just to play them,” Conrad said. “We didn’t get any wins, we lost 7-0. It was just a cool experience playing the best in the country.”

In singles No. 1 Cimpeanu lost 2-6, 0-6, No. 2 Pack 0-6, 3-6, and No. 3 Hackman 1-6, 3-6. No. 4 Barstow lost 3-6, 2-6, and Gilbert lost 1-6, 6-3, 0-10. 

“That was a good challenge for us to go down there,” Gilbert said. “We were able to compete pretty well in a couple of spots, and I think it was good to play those better opponents to kind of see how we stack up to the best teams in the nation.”

Wastcoat filled the No. 6 spot for the injured Conrad and lost 5-7, 3-6. 

“Against St. Leo we brought in Nik Wastcoat, and he played a good match against St. Leo’s No. 6,” Conrad said. “He came in and did as well as we could have expected.”  

The Saturday match versus Tiffin was canceled due to poor court conditions. 

“We decided not to play, simply because the courts that we were forced to play on were just unsafe,” Cimpeanu said. “We decided it’d just be better not to play, wait until conference, the championship and then play them there.”

The Sunday match against Findlay also did not provide Hillsdale with a doubles win. 

“Findlay does a lot of stacking with their lineup, putting probably their number six guy up at number two and pushing everyone else down,” Conrad said. “It’s just very difficult to compete against that. Everyone played their hardest. Everyone fought, and we just didn’t come out on top and sometimes that happens, but we feel pretty confident that we’re going to beat them at the conference tournament, especially once we’re outside.”

Player stacking, stacking matches by extensively flipping the lineup, is frowned upon, and it presented the Chargers with a problem.

“It is technically illegal to put your six at two and then your three at six, to just give a huge flip in your lineup,” Cimpeanu said. “But it’s something that the whole conference has to call out the team for. So our team is trying to call it out, but we need someone to back us up.”

No. 1 Cimpeanu and Hackman lost 4-6, No. 2 Barstow and Conrad won 7-4, and No. 3 Pack and Gilbert lost 3-6.

“We were back inside, so it was definitely a tough adjustment going inside to outside and back to inside because we’re back on faster courts, but I think the team generally handled it pretty well,” Gilbert said. “It definitely took a little bit, maybe a set, to get used to the court conditions, but I think we overall played pretty well. It was a match we really wanted to win, but came up just short. But we’ll be able to bounce back.”

The singles brought three wins at the No. 1, 2, and 5 spots: Cimpeanu 7-5, 6-3, Pack 6-0, 6-4, and Barstow 6-2, 6-2. No. 3 Hackman took a loss of 4-6, 4-6, and No. 4 Conrad went to a tie-break after losing 3-6 and winning 6-4, but lost the final set 4-6. No. 6 Gilbert also reached a tie-break after two sets 2-6, 6-4, but lost it with a score of 3-6.

The team is back home next weekend to play Walsh University on Sunday, March 26.

“I think we just need to focus really hard against Walsh,” Gilbert said. “It’s a big match, especially because we weren’t able to come up with the win yesterday. We just really need to focus on that match, have a good week of practice, get our doubles down a little better, and I think we’ll be okay.”