While some students may have spent spring break lounging on the beach somewhere warm, the Grand Valley State University men’s and women’s tennis teams took a vacation to Orlando for team bonding while also competing against a host of colleges.

Last week, the teams competed daily, playing eight matches in just four days. Preparing for the end of the season, they faced teams from Division I opponents in the University of Creighton and the University of Toledo and a tough Division III team from Olivet Nazarene University.

The men’s team, currently ranked No. 9 regionally, came away with a 3-4 record after the week’s matches, putting them at 3-9 on the season. They captured their first win of the season on Tuesday against Le Moyne University in a 9-0 sweep, but fell later in the day to Olivet Nazarene 6-3.

The women’s team started off Monday by dropping their first match 5-2 against Creighton, but turned it around with a 9-0 sweep of Minnesota State University, Mankato. The team finished up the week with a 6-2 record and stands at 21-7 for the season.

“Both teams have played very solid tennis,” said GVSU head coach John Black. “Just being outside and in the sun, we have had a great opportunity to bond as a team, work on our doubles and just improve our play for upcoming competition.”

The women stepped up when competition got tough allowing for half of their wins ending in shutouts. Freshman Morgan Patterson and senior Tara Hayes were the most consistent single players throughout the week, helping the team play “on a whole other level.”

“This break was all about going against the toughest competition,” Black said. “I tried to schedule matches facing
opponents who are better than us so we could improve and that is what we have done.”

Now that the Lakers have returned from their “vacation” they will be working on making their doubles game stronger
and continue to improve as a whole. The women have moved up in the ITA National Ranking to No. 24 but they will be seeking “revenge” towards the end of the seasons, possibly playing rivals Drury University or Northwood University during tournament play.

“This was a vacation even though we have played a lot of matches on the trip,” Hayes said. “We pushed to get stronger
and we did, but we can’t bring back the “vacation” mentality. We have to still work hard because we want to compete at nationals.”

The men’s team will be focused on fighting hard during upcoming conference play and have treated the spring break trip as “turn-around” for their season. With their post-season play relying on crucial wins against conference teams the men feel ready to take on the competition. “We have only had one conference match so far, so our season really hasn’t begun,” said senior Josh Kazdan.

“We are very optimistic starting those matches and we competed against very tough teams in the beginning just to prepare ourselves for these upcoming conference teams.”

Both teams are prepping to continue their seasons on a high note with the women hosting Lewis University on April 9 and the men hosting Aquinas College on March 31.

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