During what is typically considered tennis’ off-season, the Grand Valley State University men’s tennis team showed that, even now, it is preparing for the upcoming spring season.

Last weekend, the Lakers hosted the area’s top tennis players for two days of friendly competition at the GVSU Fall Invitational. In attendance were Calvin College, Cornerstone University, Davenport University, Grand Rapids Community College and GVSU.

The Lakers dominated the opposition, winning every flight it had players entered in, which included A, C and D flight singles as well as A and B doubles flights.

Friday was exclusively doubles, and Lakers tried several different combinations, looking to find successful groupings.

“The fall season is geared toward individual competition, tournaments, and finding doubles combinations sets that work,” said GVSU head coach John Black. “This year, we have two new freshmen, and last year we were a relatively young team with one senior. Now, we have three seniors, so we’re looking for the upperclassmen leadership to help guide the two younger players. We help them as best we can to adjust to college sports.”

Freshman John McDonald, who had a strong weekend and won the C singles draw of the invitational, said the team did very well overall in doubles, as did his duo with sophomore Bryan Hodges.

“We had a good day in doubles, we won our first match, but we lost to Calvin,” McDonald said. “Individually, I just want to play my best, and win some matches for the team and hopefully that will turn the whole team around.”

Saturday was a day full of singles, and the Lakers managed to bring their best to the court. While competitors from Davenport and Calvin played well, Andrew Darrell, John McDonald, and Zac Felice fought back, earning the players wins in A-flight singles, C-flight singles, and D-flight singles, respectively.

Senior Josh Kazdan, who won B flight doubles with partner Zac Felice, said the fall season is not a time to lay back and wait; rather, it is a time to improve and prepare for things to come.

“This is a great practice tournament to get us prepared for the season,” Kazdan said. “There are always things to work on, we’re still messing with our lineup. We’re going to switch some things up to get the best possible doubles teams.”

With confidence arising from the wins, the Lakers are looking to learn and improve in the period between now and their regular spring season. With success now, the team believes that they can improve upon last year’s ninth place regional ranking.

“Our goal is to win our conference this year, as well as to win as many regular season matches as possible,” Kazdan said.

This weekend’s GVSU Fall Invitational was the last event of the fall season for the Lakers, but the team will return in the spring with their sights set high.

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