A day after a tough regional loss, the Hillsdale College men's tennis team showed its resilience on Saturday, bouncing back to top a quality Lewis team 6-1 and get back on track.
The momentum turned in Hillsdale's favor early after a huge set of doubles matches. With the doubles point in danger of being lost to the Flyers, Hillsdale's No. 2 doubles team of Nik Wastcoat and Brian Hackman pulled out a 7-5 victory, and the Chargers' top pairing of Brennan Cimpeanu and Sean Barstow pulled off an epic 9-7 tiebreak victory to secure the doubles point for the Chargers.
That thrilling victory clearly carried over into singles play, where Hillsdale won five of six flights in straight sets. Freshman Aidan Pack picked up a big 6-1, 6-4 win over Lewis' Omer Gorgun at No. 3 singles for the Chargers, and Hackman completed an undefeated day with a 6-4, 6-4 win over the Flyers' Tatenda Mutetwa at No. 3 singles as well.
Senior Tyler Conrad won a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Zachary Matuszak of Lewis at No. 4 singles as well for the Chargers, Sean Barstow took a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Oliwer Wierzbicki at No. 5 singles, and Daniel Gilbert won a 6-0, 6-1 match against Lewis' Grant Miller at No. 6 singles as well.
Hillsdale improves to 4-1 with the victory, and next hits the road on Friday to play Purdue Northwest in Park Forest, Illinois.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan