The second seeded Hillsdale College men's tennis team battled to the end in a close match with third-seeded Walsh in Friday's G-MAC Tournament Semifinal in Owensboro, Kentucky, but came up short in a 4-3 defeat.
Playing without a key piece of its lineup, Hillsdale still put up a good fight, taking the doubles point and winning three total points, but the Cavaliers won at 4, 5 and 6 singles to overcome a 3-1 Chargers lead and take the match.
Hillsdale started with the momentum, winning a dramatic doubles point. Reuniting as a doubles pairing, juniors Brennan Cimpeanu and Sean Barstow took a dominant 6-2 victory at No. 1 doubles for the Chargers, and Hillsdale's No. 2 doubles team of senior Tyler Conrad and freshman Aidan Pack clinched the doubles point in thrilling fashion, outlasting Walsh's pairing in an 8-6 tiebreak to take a razor-thin 7-6 victory.
The Chargers capitalized on that momentum, taking two of the three singles matches. Playing in what could be his final match in a Hillsdale uniform, Cimpeanu pulled off a clutch victory at No. 1 singles, winning a 7-4 tiebreak to take the first set over Walsh's Philip Peter Carstensen, and finishing off the win with a 6-2 second-set victory.
Pack also won a tiebreak at No. 3 singles in the first set for the Chargers, 7-4, over Lukas Kohler and took a 6-2 victory as well to put Hillsdale up 3-1 in the match.
But the Chargers just couldn't find the fourth win they needed to continue their tournament run. Playing up from his normal No. 6 singles spot due to the lineup shift, junior Daniel Gilbert came closest, battling hard in 7-6 (3), 6-4 defeat at No. 5 singles for Hillsdale.
Hillsdale drops to 13-8 overall with the loss and now awaits its fate as an at-large contender for an NCAA Tournament berth, to be announced at 8 p.m. on Monday, April 24 at ncaa.com. The Chargers were ranked 10th in the final Midwest Region rankings on Wednesday, and will be considered for a spot, but likely needed a deeper run in the G-MAC Tournament to move into an at-large qualifying position.
Regardless of whether or not they are selected for the NCAA Tournament, the Chargers have reached the semifinal round or better of the G-MAC Tournament in each of its first five full seasons in the G-MAC since joining in 2017-18, and will look to reload for another run at the title in 2023-24.
Photo courtesy of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference