The Hillsdale College women's tennis team battled the top-ranked team in the Midwest Region and the 10th-ranked team in NCAA Division II in a hard-fought match at home on Friday, but ultimately couldn't pull the upset over Findlay in a 5-2 loss.
Despite the defeat, the Chargers had several strong matches against the highly-regarded Oilers. Hillsdale's No. 1 singles player, junior
Ane Dannhauser, protected her #57 singles ranking with a big victory over Findlay's top player, #61 Anamarija Kovacevic, with a 6-4, 6-4 victory in the top singles flight in the biggest win of the day for the Chargers, while sophomore
Julia Zlateva also picked up a strong win at No. 5 singles, taking a 6-4, 2-6, 10-7 victory over Findlay's Audrey Ouellet.Â
Freshman
Esther Sura also put up a tough fight for the Chargers at No. 6 singles, pushing Findlay's Ivanova Lucero to a third set before falling in a tight 5-7, 6-3, 4-10 match, while Hillsdale's No. 2 doubles team of
Briana Rees and
Dimitra Papastavrou pushed their match to a tiebreak before falling to the Oilers' squad.
Ultimately, it wasn't enough, as Findlay took the doubles point early in the match and got straight-set victories at No. 2, 3 and 4 singles to clinch the win. Hillsdale is now 6-7 overall, 0-2 in the G-MAC and has another tough match on Saturday, as Hillsdale hosts another nationally-ranked squad, 44th-ranked Tiffin, for a conference match starting at 10 a.m.
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