A young Hillsdale College men's tennis team got valuable experience against the Midwest Region's top players at the annual ITA Midwest Regional this weekend in Grand Rapids.

The ITA Midwest Regional is qualifier for the de-facto NCAA DII singles and doubles championship, the ITA Cup, and brings out every team and all the best players in the Midwest at the NCAA DII level for three days of tennis action.

Two freshmen showed their skill and potential for Hillsdale with deep runs in the B bracket of singles play. Both Alex Cordero Lopez and Sam Plys made the round of 16, upsetting a seeded player in the 64-man bracket to reach the second day of competition.

Cordero Lopez opened with a solid victory over Caden Lingenfelser of William Jewell thanks to a thrilling first-set tiebreak win, 7-6 (3), 6-2, before pulling off a monumental upset by stunning the bracket's top seed, UIndy's Tadeo Gaggiofatto, in a hard-fought three set match, 6-4, 3-6, 10-7. While Cordero Lopez's run came to an end in the round of 16, it's a promising start to his early career.

Plys, a fellow freshman, also had a memorable run to the round of 16 in the main bracket of the B draw. Opening up as an underdog against 13th-seeded Jaden Bender of Davenport, Plys rolled to a 6-2, 6-4 victory to knock out one of the draw's top players on paper immediately. Plys continued to impress with a dominant 6-4, 6-0 victory over Finn Buschmaas of Northwood in the second round before his run came to an end in the round of 16.

Plys also put together an impressive run in doubles with his partner, freshman Ryan Papazov. Plys and Papazov bounced back from an opening round loss to win back-to-back matches in the consolation bracket of the B doubles draw, beating teams from Lewis and Davenport 8-4 to reach the consolation bracket semifinal before their run came to an end.

Papazov also picked up a consolation bracket win in the B singles draw, downing Andres Sahagun of Rockhurst 7-6 (9), 6-4 thanks to a marathon tiebreaker win in the first set.

Hillsdale finishes off the fall portion of their schedule with a four-team home invitational this Saturday and Sunday, looking to continue building off the momentum from this past weekend.

Photo by Kenneth Gaudet