A tough stretch continued for the Hillsdale College women's tennis team continued on Sunday, as the Chargers fell to another nationally-ranked opponent on the road in #50 Northwood in a 5-2 loss to open conference play.

Sunday was the third straight challenging match this week for Hillsdale, which lost to #12 Midwestern State University on Monday and NCAA DI program Tarleton State on Tuesday.

Northwood took an early lead in the match by capturing the doubles point by a razor-thin margin. Hillsdale's No. 3 doubles team of senior Isabella Spinazze and sophomore Julia Zlateva earned a 6-4 victory and the Chargers were within two games in both of the other flights, but the Timberwolves were able to close out at No. 1 and 2 doubles to take a 1-0 edge.

In singles play, sophomore Briana Rees got a big win for the Chargers at No. 2 singles, beating Northwood's Danijela Danilovic 7-5, 4-6, 10-7 in a hard-fought three set match, and freshman Esther Sura picked up a 6-3, 6-1 victory at No. 6 singles as well over the Timberwolves' Brigitte Gomez for Hillsdale's two points. It was a tight match for Hillsdale, as both Zlateva at No. 5 singles and junior Ane Dannhauser at No. 1 singles battled hard and pushed their Northwood opponents to three sets, but ultimately the Timberwolves came out on top to clinch the match.

Hillsdale is now 6-6 overall, 0-1 in G-MAC play and continues to face tough opponents next weekend, as the Chargers host two more title contenders and nationally-ranked teams, the eighth-ranked Findlay Oilers and the 47th-ranked Tiffin Dragons, in matches on Friday and Saturday.