The Hillsdale men’s tennis team rolled over Cedarville University 8-1 on Saturday to move to a four-match win streak.
The Chargers swept singles matches and took home two doubles wins.
Sophomore Milan Mirkovic won No. 1 singles 6-0, 6-1. Sophomore Charlie Adams seized No. 2 singles 6-4, 6-1. Senior captain Dugan Delp was a No. 3 singles winner 6-4, 6-1. Junior John Ciraci won No. 4 singles 6-1, 6-1. Sophomore Michael Szabo defended No. 5 singles 6-3, 6-2.
Freshman Gabe Katz won No. 6 singles, continuing his fifth consecutive singles win.
Junior Justin Hyman and Adams took No. 1 doubles 8-4. Sophomore Julien Clouette and Mirkovic easily won No. 3 doubles 8-0.
On Tuesday, Adams was named G-MAC’s men’s tennis Player of the Week for the third time this season. Adams is on a seven-match singles winning streak, and his doubles team with Hyman is ranked No. 46 in the NCAA.
Head tennis coach Keith Turner said the Yellow Jackets improved since their last match.
“They came out and fought made some of the matches interesting,” Turner said.
Turner said Delp and Mirkovic played well in singles.
“Milan continued to play well,” Turner said. “No. 3 doubles quickly took care of business.”
Clouette said the weather affected their performance, especially that of No. 2 doubles.
“It was really cold and windy so it was tricky to play because the level of play kind of evens out so even if you’re much better than the guy, in the wind and tough conditions, anything can happen,” Clouette said.
Turner said he crafted the Chargers schedule to prepare them to finish G-MAC competition strong.
“I set up the schedule, so we’re supposed to play some good matches to get prepared for them,” Turner said. “That’s why I scheduled the Lewis match this week, which was canceled.”
Clouette said the team couldn’t get complacent.
“We are facing two of the toughest teams in the conference,” Clouette said. “Even though we beat them earlier this season, it means nothing. We have to try to play as seriously as we can. But anything can happen, especially since we are playing outside — you never know the conditions.”
Clouette said the G-MAC tournament seed is decided by conference record, and predicted Hillsdale playing against Cedarville in the first round, and then either against Walsh or Findlay in the championship.
Hillsdale is 9-6 on the season and 5-0 in the G-MAC.
The Chargers will face Davis & Elkins University on April 8.
Turner said he’s using the short break to rest two injured players, Hyman and Ciraci, to face Walsh and Findlay on April 14 and 15.
