G-MAC Men's Tennis Championship Page
The situation the Hillsdale College men's tennis team finds itself in entering the G-MAC Tournament this weekend in Owensboro, Kentucky is different from last year.
But the Chargers are aiming for the same end result.
Last year, Hillsdale came to Owensboro as the top seed and undefeated in G-MAC play after rolling through the conference schedule, and beat both Findlay and Tiffin to walk away with the conference tournament crown and a guaranteed berth to the NCAA Tournament.
In 2022, injuries and other setbacks saw the Chargers go 3-3 in conference play and enter Friday's semifinal matches as the fourth seed -- but Hillsdale still has the talent to walk away with the crown at the end of the day if it can play to its fullest potential this weekend.
The Chargers lost to all three of the other teams in the tourney -- Findlay, Tiffin and Walsh -- in the regular season, but all three matches were competitive, particularly Hillsdale's 4-3 defeat to Findlay, the top seed in the tourney and the Chargers' first-round matchup on Friday at 9:30 a.m. ET.
In that defeat, Hillsdale lost the doubles point as well as relatively competitive matches at No. 4 and No. 6 singles. Any swing either in doubles or in the two singles matches could push the overall match in Hillsdale's favor and give the Chargers a berth in the finals on Saturday morning against the winner of the Tiffin/Walsh match later that afternoon.
Hillsdale has solid and veteran players in its four singles and top two doubles slots, all of whom were major contributors to the team's conference title in 2021. Sophomore Brennan Cimpeanu (18-5 singles), the ITA Midwest Regional Champion in the fall and the 13th-ranked singles player in the nation at the DII level, leads the way for the Chargers, but junior Tyler Conrad (8-12 singles) also has significant experience playing in the No. 1 position and sophomores Sean Barstow (11-10 singles) and Daniel Gilbert (10-12 singles) are battle-tested and strong players as well.
The key for Hillsdale could be at the No. 5 and No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles spots, where junior Bogdan Janicijevic and senior Matt Granzotto have stepped into bigger roles than anticipated due to injuries and other bad breaks for the Chargers over the course of the season. If either player can pull an upset in singles or combined get a victory at No. 3 doubles this weekend, that would likely be the break Hillsdale needs to put themselves over the top against either Findlay on Friday or in a hypothetical championship match on Saturday.
Two victories this weekend would give the Chargers their second-straight G-MAC crown, and third in five years in the conference, as well as an automatic berth to the Midwest Regional of the NCAA DII Tournament in early May for the second consecutive season.
Photo by Anthony Lupi