The Hillsdale College women's tennis team continued a strong recent run of form with a fourth-straight victory to open the season on Sunday morning, taking down host Saginaw Valley State 5-2.
One of the keys to Hillsdale's victory was capturing a hard fought doubles point. The Chargers' No. 3 team of
Dimitra Papastavrou and
Julia Zlateva won a hotly-contested tiebreak, 7-3, to put Hillsdale over the top and claim the point. Hillsdale also got a tight 7-5 victory from its No. 1 doubles team of
Ane Dannhauser and
Megan Hackman as well.
In singles, the Chargers' top two players came through with big wins in close matches to help Hillsdale seal the deal. Dannhauser won a close tiebreak to claim the No. 1 singles match 7-6 (5), 6-3, over Nicoletta Diamantopolous of SVSU, and the Chargers' No. 2 singles player,
Briana Rees, also took a tiebreak in the third set to win a marathon match over SVSU's Claudia Calderero Prado, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (3).
Hillsdale finished off the match with wins at No. 5 and No. 6 singles to clinch the victory. Zlateva rolled to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over SVSU's Fatimah Butt at No.5 singles, and
Esther Sura used the momentum from winning a hard-fought first set to dominate the second and win 7-5, 6-0 over the Cardinals' Katharina Luecke at No. 6 singles.
The Chargers are now 4-0 overall after a second straight undefeated weekend, and will look to maintain their momentum as they return home next weekend for a match against another in-region foe, Purdue Northwest, beginning at noon on Saturday, February 14.
