MIDLAND, Mich. - Second-seed Grand Valley State men's tennis fell to third-seed Northwood, 5-4, in the Semifinal round of the 2015 GLIAC Men's Tennis Tournament at the Midland Community Tennis Center. The loss puts the Lakers (15-5) in the Third Place match against fourth-seed Wayne State on Sunday (Apr. 26) at 8:15 a.m., while Northwood (13-4) advances to the Championship against top-seed Ferris State.
Grand Valley State began the match by sweeping the Timberwolves in doubles play.
Francis Bertrand/
Bryan Hodges in the No. 1 pairing won 8-5 over Sebastian Eguez/Austin Woody,
Zach Phillips/
Alex van de Steenoven won 8-4 over Felipe Batistella/Konstantin Zhukov in the No. 2 pairing, and
Quinn Sylow/
Jack Heiniger took an 8-1 decision over Salikh Gilmutdinov/Tanini Kader in the No. 3 match.
Singles play is where the Lakers ran into trouble, as Northwood won the five of the six matchs and only Hodges in the No. 5 spot prevented a sweep by winning 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 over Batistella. No. 1 Bertrand fell to eighth-ranked Equez (3-6, 6-0, 6-3), Phillips fell in straight sets (6-3, 6-4) to Gilmutdinov in the No. 2 spot, van de Steenoven lost to Woody (6-0, 5-7, 6-1) in the No. 3 match, and Heiniger lost in the No. 4 match (6-3, 6-1) to Zhukov. In the deciding match,
Andrew Bole fought valiently in the No. 6 match against Kader, forcing it into the tiebreaker set, where the junior came up just short (6-4, 4-6, 7-5).
