Coming off the most successful fall campaign in program history, the Hillsdale College men's tennis team started the spring portion of its schedule off right with a 4-2 victory over host Lawrence Tech on Friday at the Franklin Athletic Club in Southfield, Michigan.
The Chargers started the match by winning the doubles point in a tightly contested round between the two squads. Hillsdale's NCAA DII nationally ranked doubles team of sophomores Brennan Cimpeanu and Sean Barstow showed their mettle in pulling out an absolute thriller, beating Patrick Putschbach and Janis Schneider of Lawrence Tech 11-9 in the tiebreak to secure a hard-fought 7-6 victory at No. 1 doubles and clinch the doubles point. The Chargers' No. 2 doubles team of junior Tyler Conrad and freshman Jonathan Degtyaryov made quick work of their Blue Devil foes 6-1 as Hillsdale edged Lawrence Tech 2-1 in doubles action.
Doubles point in hand, Hillsdale quickly got the three victories in singles it needed to clinch the match. Cimpeanu, also the seventh-ranked singles player in the nation in NCAA DII, took a 6-3, 6-4 victory at No. 1 singles over Lawrence Tech's Alex Tammaro, and Conrad won a competitive first set at No. 3 singles against the Blue Devils' Nils Hammarsten before pulling away in the second set for a 7-5, 6-1 victory.
Sophomore Daniel Gilbert clinched the match for Hillsdale, winning at No. 4 singles 6-4, 6-4 over Pedro Garcia Orellana.
Although the match was left unfinished after Gilbert clinched the winning point, Hillsdale junior Bogdan Janicijevic had battled back from a 7-5 first set loss at No. 6 singles to force a tiebreak in the second set as well for the Chargers.
Hillsdale (1-0) will hope to carry the momentum into a tough Midwest Regional match on Sunday, as the Chargers travel to 5 Star Tennis Center in the Chicago suburbs to take on Lewis in an early-season test of where the Hillsdale stands coming out of the winter break.
Photo by Anthony Lupi