Dominant teams are hard to come by. There are good ones, and even great ones, but rarely are fans exposed to a dominant one. However, the Grand Valley State University women’s tennis team is making its case to be all of the above in this upcoming season.

The No. 14 Lakers (32-0) completed the program’s first undefeated regular season with 30 wins and looked to continue their streak for a national title Wednesday in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 16 in Altamonte Springs, Fla., against No. 5 Hawaii Pacific (18-5). The results were unavailable at press time.

“Everybody is very competitive and just having the good senior leadership has made a great difference,” said head coach John Black, who is in his seventh year at GVSU. “I have four seniors this year, and all of them have done an incredible job getting the team together, getting everyone on the same page and making us into a team.”

That team unity is something that has helped fuel its success throughout the season. While the idea of going undefeated never arose during the season, the team’s current 31-match winning streak has instilled a quiet confidence in the otherwise humble group.

“I think it’s more of a surprising thing then a confidence thing,” said senior Darylann Trout, who plays No. 5 singles. “When the streak was getting into the 20s, we thought it had to come to an end, but the fact that it hasn’t has now given us confidence in what we have done, but I don’t think we were ever overly confident.”

The road to the Round of 16 has been a winding one for the Lakers. The team has been able to sustain its success – in both doubles and singles – from the first half of the season in the fall to extend their play deep into the postseason.

“We’ve really worked on our doubles, and with our depth, we feel like we’ve got a good shot at winning any match,” Black said. “With our singles, we just have to stay sharp and try to become better and smarter.”

Experience has also proven to be a key to the Lakers’ dominant play this season. Seven of the team’s 11 players are upperclassman, and with NCAA postseason appearances in their careers, have given the team a boost on the court.

“It just helps us to know that in tough matches we can pull out wins as long as we play our best out there,” said senior Chelsea Johnston, the team’s No. 3 singles player. “We had a few close matches that, just because we’ve been there before, we were able to pull out that win.”

Maybe the most satisfying win for the Lakers this season came in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Playing at home against conference-rival Ferris State University, GVSU ended the Bulldogs season in a 5-3 victory.

“I think the one team that it feels best to beat is Ferris,” Trout said. “We’ve always had close matches with them and we knew those girls growing up, so to be able to send them home was a really good feeling.”

Whether it is the confidence, experience or overall success of the season, the Lakers feel good going into their biggest match of the season Wednesday against Hawaii Pacific.

“This is what we’ve worked for the whole season, and we finally get to enjoy it,” Trout said. “We all play better when we’re having fun, so we’ll probably go there and play our best tennis.”

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