Traveling to the Upper Peninsula this past weekend, the Hillsdale College tennis team competed in and won three out of three matches.
The team left on Thursday to travel up to the U.P. in preparation for their first match on Friday against Michigan Technological Institute. The Chargers defeated Michigan Tech 6-3.
Continuing their weekend, the team headed out to Lake Superior State University on Saturday and Saginaw Valley State University on Sunday. The Chargers defeated both teams 6-3.
“We knew it was a really important weekend,” freshman Dana Buck said. “These teams are in our conference and we knew we needed to pull this out to be eligible [for GLIACS].”
With their performance this weekend, Hillsdale added on to their recent winning streak, bringing their overall record to 5-5 for the season.
With traveling over 25 hours to get to their matches, and also having to travel from campus to campus for each match, Buck said playing away from home can be tough, but that head coach Nikki Walbright’s positive attitude helped motivate them despite the fact that she had to personally drive the team to the matches.
“She didn’t let [the driving] affect her attitude,” Blaauw said. “She just kept pumping us up and helped us with strategizing with out matches.”
When asked about the drive to the matches Walbright replied: “It is never hard to stay positive when you love your job and the athletes you are working with. The driving is just a part of the job, our whole focus was performing the best that we could against tough teams.”
Walbright said the training they had been working on all season is falling into place and she is really pleased with the results of this weekend.
“Playing any team on the road is tough and they were able to perform their best all 3 days,” Walbright said. “Every member of the team was able to contribute to our success this weekend and played really well as a team.”
Despite the obstacles of the weekend, the team was able to remain focused on maintaining a high level of competiveness and looks forward to continuing to improve both individually and as a team.
“We have a mentality on the team to always leave the court satisfied with how you did, but always know that you can improve.” Blauuw said.
Overall, the team members see the wins as a confidence boost and hope to continue seeing the hard work from early in the season pay off.
“I think it helps them realize the level of playing they are capable of all of the time and will help us finish the season strong,” Walbright said.
