The Hillsdale College women's tennis team entered Friday's G-MAC Tournament semifinal as the lowest seed in the field.
They left the day as one of two teams still alive fighting for a championship, thanks to a gutsy upset of top-seeded Tiffin, 4-2, as part of a day of upsets at the G-MAC tennis championships in Owensboro, Kentucky.
In knocking off the Dragons, the Chargers avenged an earlier 4-2 loss at home to Tiffin, and they did it in large part thanks to taking the doubles point at the start of the match.
In the loss on April 11, Hillsdale came up short in the doubles point, and that proved costly throughout the rest of the match. On Friday, the Chargers flipped the script, as both the No. 1 doubles team of senior Hannah Cimpeanu and junior Sarah Hackman and the No. 2 doubles team of Canela Luna and Sophia Spinazze took 6-2 victories to secure the point.
That 1-0 advantage proved to be the difference-maker for the Chargers as it eked out the three wins it needed in singles to secure the upset. Hackman rallied from a 6-1 second-set loss to Anais Geslin of Tiffin in a 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 victory at No. 2 singles, and Luna took a similarly hard-fought 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory at No. 3 singles over the Dragons' Emily Sim to seal the match.
Spinazze also rolled to a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Alessandra Maganuco of Tiffin at No. 4 singles as well for the Chargers, and freshman Helana Formentin was entering a third-set tiebreak in a 5-7, 6-1, 6-6 match against Shea Foster of Tiffin at No. 6 singles when the match was clinched for Hillsdale.
The victory keeps the Chargers' hopes of winning its third-straight G-MAC tournament title and making a trip to the NCAA Division II regionals alive. Hillsdale plays in the G-MAC Final tomorrow, Saturday, against three-seeded Findlay, who pulled off an upset of its own by beating second-seeded Walsh 4-2 in the other semifinal. The Chargers will look to avenge another 4-2 loss with a win over the Oilers in a match beginning at 10 a.m. CT.
Photo by Ken Badylak/Kentucky Wesleyan Athletics