From the moment Hillsdale College sophomores Brennan Cimpeanu and Sean Barstow step on the court at the ITA Cup on Thursday, they'll be making history for the Charger men's tennis program.
The pair are Hillsdale's first qualifiers to the national event in program history, and will compete in Rome, Georgia for both Division II national titles and an opportunity to earn a wild card spot in the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in November.
Only 16 players and 16 doubles teams from NCAA DII programs across the country qualify for the DII draw at the ITA Cup, which began in 1986 as the Small College Nationals and has been run every year since.
Interested fans can see the draw for the event here, and also watch along with a livestream of the event from the Rome Tennis Center.
Cimpeanu (Troy, MI/Troy) earned his spot in the singles draw as one of the eight regional champions, beating several highly regarded and more experienced players to claim the ITA Midwest Regional singles title on Sept. 26. Cimpeanu was the first player in Hillsdale history, woman or man, to make it past the quarterfinal round in the top singles bracket of the event, and is the first player in the history of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference to win the regional title.
As an unseeded sophomore, Cimpeanu will be the underdog again in a loaded field that includes the 2019 ITA Cup Champion, Alejandro Ibanez of Barry University, and 2019 runner-up Alvaro Regalado of Columbus State, as the top two seeds.
Cimpeanu has a tough draw, opening up in the Round of 16 with another ITA Cup veteran, third-seeded junior Marko Nikoliuk of Southern Arkansas, at 9 a.m. on Thursday. Nikoliuk took sixth in the last ITA Cup, held in 2019, and helped the Muleriders to a Central Regional Final appearance and a 13-6 record in the spring of 2021.
If Cimpeanu can pull the upset, he would play in the quarterfinals against either Franco Oliva of Northwest Missouri St., who finished second to Nikoliuk at the ITA Central Regional this fall, or Alex Martinez Roca of Midwestern St., who reached the semifinals of the ITA South Central Regional.
Cimpeanu also will team with Barstow (Las Vegas, NV/Folsom) in the ITA Cup doubles draw. The pair made history again at the Midwest Regional on Sept. 26, becoming the first Hillsdale College doubles team to reach the final in doubles and earning a first-ever at-large bid to the ITA Cup after pulling several notable upsets along the way.
Barstow and Cimpeanu open their ITA Cup journey on Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m., against a tough opponent, facing off against the fourth seeded team of sophomores Luca Mack and Rodrigo Carvalho of Valdosta St., who won the South Regional Doubles Championship on Sept. 27.
Potential opponents in the quarterfinal round if the Chargers can pull an upset are the Davenport team of Jonathan Bulmer and Juan-Louis van Antwerpen that defeated Barstow and Cimpeanu in the Midwest Regional final, 7-6, 6-4, or an Azusa Pacific team of Leyton Bohren and Miha Velicki that won the West Regional doubles crown.
The ITA Cup consists of eight tournaments, with singles and doubles action for 16 select participants from NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA and the Junior College ranks.
The winner of each tournament is automatically entered into a wild card spot in the 64-participant Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in November that consists of the best collegiate tennis players in the country regardless of classification, and the four singles and doubles champions are also entered into a bracket on Sunday to compete for an overall ITA Cup title across all small-school classifications as well.
For more information on the event, click here.
Photo by Anthony Lupi '22