In a day of tennis that would seemingly never end, the Grand Valley State University men’s team took down a GLIAC power before dropping a nail-biter to the top team in the conference.

At the GLIAC championships in Midland, Mich., the Lakers took on Lake Superior State University on Saturday morning, a team that GVSU had lost to 5-4 earlier in the year. GVSU scratched out a tough 5-2 win after four and a half hours.

Next for GVSU was GLIAC-best Northwood University, which powered through Findlay earlier the same day in less than half the time it took for the Lakers to finish off Lake Superior State. GVSU came into the match a heavy underdog after having lost to the Timberwolves 8-1 earlier in the year.

However, the Lakers swept Northwood in the doubles but could not equal their performance in the singles, losing five-of-six of those matches and dropping a 5-4 decision in a four-hour, 15-minute epic.

GVSU head coach John Black said the team was a little conflicted after playing the Timberwolves so tough, only to lose in the end.

“I think everybody is proud that we played them very close, but everybody also feels like we could have won the match, which is pretty heartbreaking,” he said. “We were right there, but it’s like in basketball when you’re right there the whole time and you miss the last shot. It’s a tough way to lose.”

Black specifically lauded the play of the Laker senior Marc Roesslein, who competed at both No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles in the tournament. He played seven hours of tennis in one day.

“Marc was pretty much on court today from 11 a.m. until 8:30 p.m,” he said. “He had an hour break between the matches, but other than that, he was playing nonstop. He was out there battling for hours. For him to play great doubles and play some tough singles, I don’t know how he did it.”

This marked the fourth-straight year that GVSU faced Northwood University in the GLIAC tournament, but was the first time in that span that the Lakers were not swept by the Timberwolves.

Senior Ryan Diebold said the team was disappointed by their close loss to Northwood, but they also took some positives from it.

“It really sucks that we lost, but I’ve never been on a team that’s made it as close as we did against (Northwood),” he said. “Usually when we play them it’s 7-2 or 8-1. We knew their singles were really tough, and we knew we had to play the best tennis that we possibly could. We gave it our all, and that’s really all you can do against a team like Northwood.”

He added that the result was more than almost anyone expected against a team that has dominated its conference the entire year.

GVSU senior Pat Snyder, playing in his last matches as a Laker, said it was an up and down fight all weekend for the team.

“We avenged an earlier season loss to Lake State and battled hard all weekend.” he said. “Northwood was who we thought they were, and after sweeping doubles we slowed up and let them off the hook.”

After dropping an additional match to Ferris State University (5-2), the Lakers ended the season at 12-12.

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