Another week, and another award-winning performance for the Hillsdale College men's tennis team's Brennan Cimpeanu.
The sophomore captured his fourth G-MAC Men's Tennis Player of the Week award this season on Monday afternoon, the conference office announced, and his second in a row, after a dominant performance in Hillsdale's 4-3 win over Lake Superior State on Saturday.
Cimpeanu made quick work of his opponent at No. 1 singles, beating the Lakers' Juho Kantola 6-0, 6-2 for a straight-set victory, and the sophomore also teamed with Daniel Gilbert for a 6-2 win at No. 2 doubles to help secure the match-winning doubles point.
It's the second Player of the Week award in a row for Cimpeanu, who also captured the award last week after going 2-0 against Northwood. The sophomore also won the award twice in the fall portion of the 2021-22 season, and earned the distinction once as a freshman in the spring 2021 campaign. Cimpeanu's five G-MAC Player of the Week awards are one shy of the program career record of six awards won by Charlie Adams, from 2017 to 2020.
The Troy, Michigan native is having a historic season for the Chargers, winning the program's first ever ITA Midwest Regional title in the fall and finishing tied for seventh in the nation in singles at the ITA Cup in Rome, Georgia, in October. Pairing with Sean Barstow in the fall for doubles, the duo also finished runner-up in the ITA Midwest Regional and tied for 13th in the nation at the ITA Cup. Based on strong performances in the fall, Cimpeanu entered the spring ranked seventh in the nation at the NCAA DII level in singles, and his pairing with Barstow was ranked 14th among doubles pairings.
So far for the season, Cimpeanu is 13-3 in singles play, and his three losses all either came against top six players in the nation, or were the result of having to withdraw due to an injury. He's also 11-5 in doubles matches, split between partners Barstow and Gilbert.
The Chargers now head south next week to Florida for Spring Break, playing at nationally-ranked Saint Leo on Sunday, March 13 and at Florida Southern on Monday, March 14. Cimpeanu will get the opportunity to put his ranking to the test against another nationally-ranked player, 27th-ranked Bruno Faletto of Saint Leo, in that Sunday match in what will be an anticipated showdown as Hillsdale wraps up non-conference action before G-MAC play begins on March 19.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan