The Hillsdale College women's tennis team has been on the wrong end of a few razor thin margins this season.
In that regard, Saturday was a huge step forward for the Chargers, as Hillsdale buckled down and flipped the margin on host Purdue Northwest, finishing strong for a narrow 4-3 victory to improve to 2-3 on the season.
Success for Hillsdale on Saturday started with the doubles point. The Chargers outmanuevered the Pride to take a 1-0 lead in the match thanks to a 6-3 win by Libby McGivern and Ellie Chawner at No. 2 singles, and a 6-2 win by Canela Luna and Megan Hackman at No. 3 singles.
That doubles point victory proved crucial as four of the six singles matches went to three sets. Hillsdale quickly took a 3-0 advantage thanks to dominating straight sets wins by Luna at No. 3 singles (6-1, 6-1) and, in her first time in the singles lineup this season, by Courtney Rittel at No. 6 singles in an impressive showing (6-2, 7-6).
Those two wins meant the Chargers needed just one more victory to finish off the win and McGivern, a sophomore, got the job done at No. 4 singles, overcoming a heartbreaking tiebreak loss in the second set and coming back strong for a 6-0, 6-7, 6-1 win over Purdue Northwest's Patricia Dizon to clinch the match.
Sarah Hackman at no. 1 singles, Melanie Zampardo at No. 2 singles, and Ellie Chawner at No. 5 singles all pushed their Purdue Northwest opponents to three sets but ended up losing hard-fought matches.
The Chargers will look to build off this victory with another match tomorrow at home against Midwest Regional foe Michigan Tech at 3 p.m., following the men's match against the Huskies.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan