Two Hillsdale College men's tennis players continued to make history for the Charger program by participating in the ITA Cup for the second straight season this past weekend.
Junior Brennan Cimpeanu was one of 16 of the nation's top singles players to compete in the tournament, the de-facto NCAA Division II national championships for singles and doubles, and Cimpeanu also joined Barstow as one of 16 doubles teams to compete in the four-day event hosted at the Rome Tennis Center in Rome, Georgia.
Barstow and Cimpeanu came close to pulling off a victory in two of their three doubles matches on the weekend. The two juniors took the first set of their opening round match against Jonathan Berling and Fernando Torres of Southern New Hampshire 6-3 on Thursday, but lost the second set 6-2 and then fell in a hard-fought tiebreak, 10-7.
The Chargers also nearly came away with the victory in their first consolation match on Friday, dropping a tight 6-4, 5-7, 5-10 match to Mason Meier and Jan Skerbatis of Northwest Missouri State, before falling to Sebastian Pjontek and Tim Hammes of Washburn 6-1, 6-3 in their final match of the competition on Saturday.
Cimpeanu also fought hard against excellent competition in singles play, but was unable to secure a victory in any of his three matches. The junior lost 6-2, 6-4 to Berling of Southern New Hampshire in his opening match on Thursday, then was defeated by Tyler Davis of Point Loma Nazarene in a well-played 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 match in consolation play. Cimpeanu finished his ITA Cup performance on Saturday with a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Martins Abamu of Lubbock Christian.
Although the Chargers were unable to come away with a victory in this year's ITA Cup, the experience of getting to participate in one of the biggest national events at the NCAA DII level, and to get so many matches in against some of the best players in the country, can only help Hillsdale as the Chargers look to compete for a G-MAC title in the spring.
Hillsdale will take the court again to kick off the spring portion of its schedule on Saturday, Feb. 4 against Cornerstone at home, but first will have several months of training and skill refinement over the winter to help prepare for the dual-match season to come.
Photo Courtesy of the ITA Cup