While every team strives to reach the conference championships, that representation of hard work and success is not the easiest achievement.

For the Grand Valley State University women’s tennis team, however, the championship dream became a reality when the Lakers defeated defending champion Northwood University 5-1 in the final round of the GLIAC Championship tournament Sunday in Midland, Mich.

In defeating Northwood, who had won every tournament since 2003, the Lakers earned the their first GLIAC Tournament Championship since 1980.

The team also defeated Lake Superior State and Wayne State in the GLIAC tournament to reach the title match against Northwood.

Against Northwood, the Lakers saw big contributions from their singles winners in junior Tara Hays (unfinished), freshman Niki Shipman (2-6, 6-3, 6-2), senior Chelsea Johnston (unfinished), freshman Lexi Rice (unfinished), senior Darylann Trout (6-4, 6-1) and junior Katelyn Schaffer (6-4, 6-3). The doubles team of Johnston/Trout defeated its opponent 8-1 while the Rice/Jackie Shipman duo won 8-2.

After defeating the eighth and fourth seeds, respectively, the team’s reward was No. 2 seed and defending champion Northwood. The Timberwolves, who fell to GVSU 5-4 in the regular season, had experience that the Lakers lacked, but GVSU did not lack confidence heading into the match.

“Having beaten them in the regular season, I think everyone is confident that we can do it again,” said sophomore Allison Fecko. “It’s new for us to be in this position, but we’re all in this to win- the seniors really deserve it.”

GVSU head coach John Black admitted many of the players wanted to meet Northwood in the title match because, “You want to beat the best team, and that’s been Northwood for the last decade.”

Sunday was the biggest match in recent memory for the women’s tennis team. Hungry for a title, the Lakers looked to win their first postseason conference championship since 1980 and, in turn, end Northwood’s streak of seven straight championship wins.

“I actually think we’re in better shape going into (Sunday) than Northwood,” Hayes said on Saturday night. “We’re undefeated, and we’ve beaten them. I feel like at the end of the day, we know we can beat them again.”

The team, which came into the tournament as the No. 1 seed and regular season conference champion, defeated Lake Superior 5-0 in the quarterfinals on Friday and Wayne State 5-4 in the semifinals on Saturday.

In Friday’s match, singles winners included Hayes (6-3, 6-0), Niki Shipman (unfinished), Johnston (unfinished), Rice (unfinished), Trout (6-0, 6-0) and Jackie Shipman (unfinished). In doubles, the Lakers cruised to a sweep with wins by Johnston/Trout (8-1), Schaffer/Alyssa Lucas (8-3) and Jackie Shipman/Rice (8-2).

The win Friday pushed the Lakers into a semi-final match against No. 4 Wayne State, a team GVSU defeated 7-2 to open the season.

Adversity hit the Lakers early when the usually strong doubles teams failed to sustain their dominant play from the regular season. Outside the team of Jackie Rice/Shipman (8-3), GVSU dropped two of its three doubles matches.

“Wayne came out really strong today. We didn’t really play bad, but they outplayed us in some aspects,” Black said. “It was the first time we’ve had to dig ourselves out of a hole this year, but it didn’t get us down, and they regrouped and came back stronger in the singles.”

After the slow start, the Lakers responded by winning five of six singles matches, led by winners Shipman (unfinished), Johnston (6-3, 6-4), Rice (6-1, 6-3), Trout (6-3, 6-2) and Fecko (6-1, 6-2).

[email protected]