Sophomore Alex Cordero kneels down to hit ball against Tiffin University.
Courtesy | Kenneth Gaudet

The Hillsdale College men’s tennis team dropped two matches at home over the weekend, falling 4-1 to No. 45 ranked University of Findlay and 6-1 to No. 20 ranked Tiffin University, falling to 0-3 in conference play and 5-8 on the season.

Hillsdale opened the weekend against Findlay, where the Oilers secured the doubles point to take an early lead. The Chargers were unable to recover in singles play, as Findlay claimed three singles matches to take the overall win. 

“The scores don’t really do justice to how we played,” sophomore Ryan Papazov said. “I think we played well against good opponents, we just didn’t win the crucial deciding points in some of the matches.” 

At No. 2 doubles, freshman Jackson Clements, who is nursing a slight foot injury, and sophomore Samuel Plys won 6-3. Clements credited the win to their teamwork. Hillsdale’s lone point of the day came at No. 3 singles, where Papazov earned a 7-6, 6-4 victory.

“My serves and returns were working really well in my service games,” Papazov said. “I was able to stay in the rally and hit good, quality shots, over and over again. I wasn’t missing much, so that is always useful.”

The Chargers returned to action the following day against Tiffin but saw a similar result. Tiffin controlled the match early, winning at No. 2 and 3 doubles to gain the doubles point, and they carried that momentum into singles play, winning five of six singles matches.

At No. 1 doubles, Papazov and junior Henry Hammond won 6-4. 

“We really just went for it,” Papazov said. “We were attacking the net player, putting a lot of pressure on them to make the mistakes. We really attacked and tried to finish the point off as quickly as week could early on. That was the decisive factor.”

Although Clements lost in a third-set tiebreak on court No. 6, he said that it helped his confidence going forward.

“Playing Tiffin with an injured toe and losing 12-10 in the tiebreaker gives me confidence of how good I can be when I am healthy,” Clements said.

Sophomore Alex Cordero Lopez provided Hillsdale’s sole point, earning a 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 5 singles.

“Alex had his best win of the year,” head coach Keith Turner said. “We hung in there with a very strong Tiffin team, and the match was closer than the final score indicated.”

The Chargers will hit the road as they look to return to the win column, facing off against Ashland University on April 3 and Cedarville University on April 4 in Ohio.