Aidan Pack competed as the No. 2 singles player for the Chargers against GVSU last spring. Courtesy | Isabella Sheehan
Sophomore Aidan Pack led the Hillsdale men’s tennis team after winning the final B draw match Sept. 17.
“I got up to a bit slower of a start, didn’t do as well,” Pack said. “But the second day I feel like I turned it back on, got really comfortable, got confident. My last match is probably the best match I’ve played here so far.”
Pack won his quarterfinals match 6-3, 6-4 over University of Findlay’s Andrew Codita. He beat Lawrence Tech’s Takuya King 6-4, 6-3 in his semifinals match. In the final match of the B draw, he took the first set against Findlay’s Wilfredo Lara and won the match when Lara retired in the second set.
“Aidan by far to me was the biggest highlight of the weekend,” head coach Keith Turner said.
After losing his quarterfinals match in the A draw against Walsh University’s Niklas Nordahl Jensen, senior Sean Barstow came back with a doubles win with senior Tyler Conrad. The pair beat King and Antoine Huarez of Lawrence Technological University 6-4. They defeated Findlay’s Luigi Bove and Dallas Ramsay next in an 8-6 tiebreaker to reach the finals of the doubles A draw. They played strong in the finals but lost in a 7-3 tiebreaker to Lara and Ethan Shoemith.
Conrad won his quarterfinals match in the A draw 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), over Walsh University’s Philip Peter Carstenson before a close loss in his semifinals match in a 10-6 tiebreaker to Ramsay.
Despite freshmen Henry Hammond and Ellis Klanduch being injured this weekend, Pack still feels confident in the team’s performance this weekend and their prospects for the spring season.
“We didn’t have our full lineup with a couple players injured, but even despite that I feel like we put up a really solid performance,” Pack said. “With our full team I feel like we’re going to be very competitive and be very deep this year.”
Hammond said he feels like he put in a good effort this week despite an injury, and now he knows more of what to expect from college matches.
“Overall, we’re getting back,” freshman Kenko Vician-Flechler said. “We weren’t as healthy as we could be, and we’re just getting better prepared for next week.”
The Chargers will play their next tournament in two weeks at the ITA Regional Championships in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“That’s the biggest event of the fall,” Turner said. “We just need to get a couple of the freshmen healthy and we should be doing pretty good.”
