The Hillsdale College men's tennis team battled a strong Ferris State squad on the road on Sunday, but couldn't come out on top in a 6-1 defeat at the hands of the Bulldogs.
Ferris State captured the doubles point despite a tough fight from the Chargers, who got a win at No. 3 doubles from senior Daniel Gilbert and freshman Henry Hammond. The duo won a back-and-forth match with a narrow 7-5 victory in a tiebreak, but the Bulldogs got the win at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles to take a 1-0 lead.
In singles play, senior Sean Barstow got a victory for the Chargers at No. 5 singles, battling back from being blanked 6-0 in the first set by Ferris State's Kevin Kovacs to win the second set 6-3 and take a 10-4 win in the third-set super tiebreak to get the Chargers a point. Ferris State, however, won the other five singles flights to clinch the match despite solid efforts from several Hillsdale players, most notably senior Tyler Conrad, who forced a deciding third set at No. 3 singles against the Bulldogs' Erik Kovacs with a 6-4 victory in set two, before falling 10-7 in a tight third set tiebreak.
Hillsdale is now 3-4 overall, and has one more match before its spring break trip this next Friday, traveling to take on nationally-ranked Wayne State in a 6 p.m. matchup in Detroit.
Photo by Anthony Lupi