The Hillsdale College men’s tennis team bounced back from its first loss of the season, beating Southern Indiana University at 6-1 on March 7 in the Biermann Center.
The Chargers got off to a strong start, with both their No. 1 and No. 2 doubles winning 6-1 and 6-4, securing the doubles point.
While head coach Keith Turner mentioned considering changing his doubles teams, he stuck to the original lineups, with sophomore Tyler Conrad and freshman Sean Barstow at No. 1, freshman Brennan Cimpeanu and senior Gabe Katz at No. 2, and junior Brian Hackman and freshman Daniel Gilbert at No. 3 doubles.
In singles, three out of the six matches went to three sets with the Chargers winning two of them.
“Every time we compete against a more difficult team, we seem to be getting stronger ourselves as a team,” said Cimpeanu. “We are getting better at reading each other and connecting on the court.”
Conrad and Cimpeanu dominated, winning 6-1, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-0, respectively. Hackman won a marathon match 6-5, 5-7, 11-9.
“I just had to do my best to keep focused and have a plan for every point,” said Hackman.
Turner said the freshmen haven’t changed much, and they’ve all been playing well.
“Cimpeanu continues to play at a very high level every match,” said Turner. “Barstow was probably going through some confidence issues as he’s had to play high in the singles lineup and No. 1 doubles and with our tough early schedule he was playing strong players every match, I thought he looked much better in singles and doubles yesterday.”
Barstow won 6-2, 6-1, while Gilbert lost a long match 1-6, 7-5, 10-5. Katz won 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 to bring the Chargers the win.
“Gilbert continues to play great singles but probably needs to continue to gain some experience in doubles,” said Turner.
Hackman said he has been impressed by the freshmen’s discipline and hard work in practice.
“They have quickly become really strong doubles players, which is hard because before college tennis almost every tournament is singles only,” said Hackman.
Cimpeanu said his team and coach have helped him improve his doubles play.
“For sure something I wasn’t expecting is how much my doubles game has improved,” said Cimpeanu. “In my time playing doubles before college, I was the person who would always stay back and expect my partner to control the net.”
Before playing their next five games on the road, the Chargers play Michigan Tech on Saturday at noon at home.
“I don’t consider most of the teams we play to have much of a home court advantage,” said Turner. “We do need to get some extra off days that we’ll get in the upcoming couple weeks. We’re a little beat up so hopefully after break the guys that are playing will be close to 100%.”
