Senior Sean Barstow fought hard in the A draw. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

The Hillsdale men’s tennis team made a round of comebacks at the ITA Midwest Regionals this past weekend. Freshman Ellis Klanduch led with an impressive run, making it to the quarterfinals of the B draw consolation bracket. 

“He competed very well for his first college event,” head coach Keith Turner said. “I’m very pleased with what I saw from him.”

Klanduch worked his way to the quarterfinals of the B draw consolation bracket. He won the first consolation round 6-3, 6-3. He won the next round 6-2, 6-4. He lost 2-6, 6-2 (9-11) in a close match tiebreaker in the quarterfinal.

Senior Sean Barstow fought hard in the opening round of the A draw, splitting sets, but ultimately lost 6-7, 6-4 (10-3). 

Freshman Henry Hammond defeated his opponent 6-1, 4-6 (10-8) in the opening round of the B draw consolation bracket before losing 6-3, 7-5 in the next round.

In doubles, Klanduch and sophomore Aidan Pack won 8-6 in the opening round of the B draw over a team from Walsh University. They fell to the second-seeds from University of Indianapolis 8-3 in the next round.

“At 6 in the doubles match me and Aidan played, it was like 10 p.m., we were struggling that whole time on the return games, and I took the no-add deuce point and hit a winner up the line,” Klanduch said. “That was pretty big because then that led Aidan to hit four straight bombs. I didn’t have to do anything that whole next game. He had four serves, and they couldn’t return one of them, so we won that match. That was pretty cool.”

Hammond and senior Dan Gilbert came back and crushed their opponents 8-3 after losing in the opening round of the doubles B draw.

“We were able to come back and play the best we’d played that weekend and be a very good doubles pair,” Hammond said. “It was quite uplifting to be able to be that positive and play that well, despite the events that had taken place beforehand.”

Seniors Tyler Conrad and Barstow also saw victory in doubles in the opening round of the A draw consolation bracket. They won 9-8 (7-4) against a University of Findlay team before losing 8-6 to a team from Michigan Technological University in the quarterfinals.

According to Turner, the ITA Midwest Regional was a preview for the upcoming spring. 

“The tournament was an eye opener for us as we saw what the deepest region in the country looks like,” Turner said. “We have a lot of work to do if we’re going to compete for an NCAA tournament bid in the spring.”

The Chargers’ next tournament is Oct. 7 on their home courts. Their competition is still to be announced. 

“We’re hoping to perform well because we’re going to be playing all these teams in the spring,” Klanduch said. “It was a little tough at first, just kind of getting into it, but we’re starting to play really well, so it should be fun.”