Against the toughest opponent it's faced to date, the Hillsdale College women's tennis team nearly pulled off another upset.
But in the end, GLIAC contender Ferris State managed to pull out a tight match, 4-3, to hand the Charger women their first loss of the season.
The Bulldogs took all three matches to win the doubles point to start the afternoon, giving Ferris State an early edge. junior Sophia Spinazze and sophomore Canela Luna came the closest to knocking off the Bulldogs at No. 2 doubles, dropping a 7-5 decision.
Despite being on the back foot entering singles play, Hillsdale put up a fight, winning three of the six matches. Junior Sarah Hackman won a hard-fought match over Ferris St.'s Sophie Davettila 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 to earn a point for the Chargers at No. 2 singles, and Luna also won a hard-fought match over the Bulldogs' Isabella Paixao 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 at No. 3 singles for Hillsdale as well. Sophomore Ellie Chawner picked up a third win for the Chargers at No. 5 singles, beating Ferris' Brittany Lavenant 6-2, 6-0.
At No. 4 singles, Spinazze gave a strong effort against a tough opponent for the Chargers, overcoming a narrow first-set tiebreak loss to win 7-5 in the second set and force a third set against Ferris' Agatha Klak. The junior pushed Klak to the final point but came up just short, 4-6, in the third set in a narrow Ferris victory that sealed the match.
While Hillsdale's record is no longer perfect at 3-1, the fact that the Chargers were able to hang with one of the GLIAC's stronger teams is an encouraging sign for Hillsdale moving forward. The Chargers face an even bigger test on the road next Sunday, March. 7 when Hillsdale takes on defending GLIAC champion Wayne St. in Detroit for its next match.
Photo by Summer Fields