The Hillsdale College men's tennis team couldn't keep pace with a tough opponent on Saturday, as the current second-place team in the G-MAC, Northwood, handed the Chargers a 4-0 loss at home.

Hillsdale fought hard for the doubles point, getting a well-earned 7-5 victory from its No. 3 team of Eddie Bergelin and Rintaro Goda, and playing competitive 6-4 matches in the other two flights, but ultimately the Timberwolves took a 2-1 edge in doubles to take an early lead.

That meant Northwood needed to win just three singles matches to take the overall match, and the Timberwolves found the victories they needed at No. 1, 2, and 4 singles to end the match. Hillsdale's Sam Plys was tied 5-5 in the second set with a chance to potentially force a third set at No. 3 singles, and Henry Hammond was leading early in his No. 5 singles match, but both were halted before completion once the match was clinched in Northwood's favor.

Hillsdale is now 9-8 overall, 3-3 in G-MAC play and faces an important final weekend of the regular season next Friday and Saturday. The Chargers host Cedarville on Friday and Ashland on Saturday needing to win both matches to ensure itself a top four seed in the upcoming G-MAC Tournament, two weeks from now in Owensboro, Kentucky. 

Photo by Austin Thomason