For the first time in nearly two years, the Hillsdale College women's tennis team got to play a match on its home outdoor venue of the Mary Jane Delp Courts. And they made the wait worth it.
The Chargers ran their overall record to 10-2 on the season with a 7-0 regional victory over Saginaw Valley State University Saturday afternoon.
The Chargers started up 1-0 as Saginaw did not have a third doubles team meaning the Chargers only had to win one of the two doubles matches being played to secure the doubles point. No. 2 doubles team of Madeline Bissett and Kamryn Matthews cruised to a quick victory playing steady flawless doubles to win 6-1, giving Hillsdale its second needed point to take the overall doubles point. Wrapping up with another win was No. 1 doubles pair of Hannah Cimpeanu and Sarah Hackman, with a score of 6-4.
The Cardinals only had four players for singles so they had to forfeit the No. 5 and No. 6 singles positions, giving Hillsdale a lead of 3-0.
Officially clinching the match overall and giving Hillsdale its first singles victory was No. 1 singles player Hannah Cimpeanu, topping her opponent 6-4, 6-3. No. 3 singles player Matthews and No. 4 singles player Corinne Prost were almost in sync with each other, as both courts hit a little speed bump early on the match but were both able to pull out the match, ending within a point of each other. Prost at No. 4 had a true battle in her match, as her opponent was a hard steady hitter and proved she was ready to grind. Prost was able to stay mentally strong the entire match as well as cheer for her teammates during stressful games to stay on top, and to eventually win 6-4, 7-5, marking a huge win for her personal career.
Matthews had an especially lengthy match as well as all of her points were at least 30 or more shots long. She had a tough first set but was able to pull it out in a tiebreaker to win 7-6 (7-5 in the tiebreak), and she wrapped up Hillsdales 6th point with a win in the second set 6-3.
The final match came down to the No. 2 singles player and freshman, Hackman. After a steady fight, Hackman lost the first set 6-7, but made a huge jump back to dominate in the second set to win 6-1, sending it into a third set tiebreaker. After going back and forth with holding and breaking serve, Hackman saved two match points to come back and take the win 11-9, making the match a clean sweep for the Chargers.
WORDS: Megan Miller