The Hillsdale College men's tennis team made the long trek to Springfield, Illinois on Saturday, and were rewarded with a Midwest Regional victory over a quality opponent.
Host Illinois-Springfield was in the NCAA DII Tournament two years ago and is usually a solid program in the Midwest Region, making Hillsdale's 5-2 victory over them on Saturday an important victory for the Chargers.
After some early-season struggles in doubles, the Chargers switched up their lineups against the Prairie Stars on Saturday and got immediate results. Hillsdale's new top pairing of junior Brennan Cimpeanu and senior Brian Hackman pulled out a 7-5 tiebreak victory at No. 1 doubles for the Chargers, and Hillsdale's No. 2 lineup of Tyler Conrad and Sean Barstow also pulled out a 6-3 victory to secure a critical doubles point.
In singles play, Cimpeanu built off a strong doubles performance with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over UIS' Sebastian Jonsson at No. 1 singles to get the Chargers off on the right foot, and Hackman rallied from a 6-1 first set loss to win 6-4, 6-2 over UIS' Pablo Herrera at No. 3 singles as well.
Barstow finished off the Chargers' victory with the clinching point at No. 5 singles, taking a 6-2, 6-0 victory over UIS' Rafael Rojas, and junior Daniel Gilbert also got a big victory for Hillsdale at No. 6 singles, winning 6-1, 5-7, 6-0 over UIS' Philip Rydell.
Hillsdale is now 7-2 overall in dual matches and plays another big regional match tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. against Missouri-St. Louis. It's the Chargers' final regional match before their spring break trip to Florida, beginning next weekend.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan