Just underway in their spring season, the Grand Valley State University Tennis team took on a plethora of local teams at the Grand Rapids City invitational.

Local teams that faced the Lakers this past weekend were Davenport, Hope College, Aquinas College, Cornerstone University, and Grand Rapids Community College.

“It was a very competitive group of teams that we faced,” said sophomore Francis Bertrand. “I feel like we played to our potential in all of the matches we were in.”

For the Lakers, it was an early test to see just how they would fair against some of the best local competition, before they being to face GLIAC competition.

“This weekend was all about being mentally tough,” said junior Brian Hodges. “We all realized that there weren’t going to be any easy wins, and that we would have to bring our best to every match.”

GVSU won four of the six flights throughout the tournament. The Lakers credited the amount of work that was put in prior to the match for their success.

“Overall, I thought we showed great effort throughout the weekend,” said junior Andrew Darrell. “We still have a lot of areas that we need to improve on, but right now I would say we are right on track to where we want to be.

Headlining those victories was sophomore Francis Bertrand, who won the No. 2 singles tournament and also added a doubles victory with teammate Bryan Hodges.

“Francis had a great weekend,” Hodges said. “He has really elevated his game in the past couple of weeks and has shown improvement in all areas of his game as the season progresses.”

As important as single player production is to the Laker’s success, it is just as important for the entire team to enjoy success for GVSU to have a strong season.

“My confidence and chemistry with Brian is awesome,” Bertrand said. “We really connected on the court, it showed with the outcome that we had.

GVSU benefits from pushing one another in practice on a daily basis. They are always looking to make each other better.

“Each and every one of us really had to buckle down and grind it out to try to find a win,” Hodges said. “A strong point with this team is that we all find ways to motivate each other.”

Even after finding success this past weekend, the Lakers still know they have things they need to work on.

“We have to keep elevating our individual games,” Hodges said. “During this meet, we started off real strong but somewhat faded as the meet went on. We have to make sure that we play at our fullest potential game in and game out.”
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