The Hillsdale College men's tennis team got off to a solid start to the spring season on Friday, taking down visiting Spring Arbor 6-1 in a match in the Biermann Athletic Center.

The two teams played an incredibly tight doubles point to start the match off on a thrilling note. The Chargers' top doubles pairing of sophomore Ryan Papazov and junior Ellis Klanduch broke a 5-5 tie by winning the final two games to take the match and clinch the doubles point, 7-5. Hillsdale also got a win at No. 2 doubles from junior Henry Hammond and freshman Patrick Cretu, 6-3.

In singles play, Hammond continued to play well, taking a first set tiebreak and winning the second set 6-1 to beat Daniel Rodriguez Fortes of Spring Arbor at No. 3 singles. Sophomore Sam Plys also picked up a point for Hillsdale at No. 2 singles with a 6-4, 7-6 win over the Cougars' Jaume Riera Galindo, and Cretu rallied from a first set loss to beat Spring Arbor's Andrei Negrut 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 at No. 4 singles to clinch the match.

Sophomore Rintaro Goda also won two tiebreaks to take the win at No. 5 singles over the Cougars' Jakub Sevcik, 7-6, 7-6, and freshman Jackson Clements took a 6-2, 6-3 victory for Hillsdale at No. 6 singles over Caleb Kaytar of Spring Arbor to finish off the night.

Hillsdale is now 1-0 overall and in action again tomorrow, Saturday at home with a 2:30 p.m. match against Michigan Tech.