In a break from their routine GLIAC matches, the Hillsdale College women’s tennis team headed to Indianapolis to compete in the ITA Regional tournament at both the double and individual level against teams from all over the area.
“We played aggressively and smart. When you are playing as free as we were, we have a blast doing what we love with teammates that are best friends,” senior team captain Sydney Delp said. “Coach was very happy with our performance.”
The girls played up to four matches a day, and on Friday the Chargers spent nearly 10 hours at the tournament.
“It’s intense,” head coach Nikki Walbright said. “You can play a lot of matches in one day, but the girls did really well.”
Hillsdale showed three doubles teams within a field of 32 total teams. In an impressive showing, all three pairs finished the day undefeated, advancing them to the quarterfinals which were played on Saturday.
Originally seeded at 16th for A doubles, freshman Halle Hyman and senior Lindsay Peirce beat out three teams before finally falling to the top-seeded team from Lewis, 8-5.
On the B side, junior Dana Grace Buck and freshman Corinne Prost were ranked 5th in their bracket. The duo won their first match 8-2 and advanced to the quarterfinals thanks to an 8-6 victory over a team from Bellarmine. The duo was unable to advance further due to an injury sustained by Prost.
Junior Jada Bissett and Delp sailed through three matches before falling 8-5 to a duo from Indianapolis in the semifinals.
“I think our doubles was phenomenal,” Buck said. “That was the standout play of the weekend for me.”
Hillsdale also displayed several strong performances on the singles front.
Prost took down Missouri-St. Louis’s Salome Bleuler 3-6, 6-4, 11-9 in the A bracket, but she had to withdraw from the tournament due to her injury.
After easing to a first-round 6-1, 6-0 victory, Hyman lost 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 to the tournament’s No. 3 seed from Drury.
In the B bracket, Buck made it to consolation quarterfinals before withdrawing with an injury. Junior Amberley Bailey finished 1-1 with a 6-2, 6-4 win in the first round.
Now with the second part of their season underway, the team continues to train in hopes of securing a spot in the GLIAC tournament. This weekend’s matches at Lake Superior State and Michigan Tech are critical in that endeavor.
“We are not looking to catch a breath,” Delp said. “We are enjoying the grind and committed to making each day in practice count towards our efforts to beat the remaining GLIAC teams on our schedule.”
