MIDLAND, Mich. - The Lake Superior State (LSSU) men's tennis team (7-7, 3-3 GLIAC) narrowly fell to the Purdue Northwest Pride in the opening round of the GLIAC Tournament by a final score of 4-3 on Friday.

Both teams battled early in doubles play, foreshadowing the intensity that would persist for the entirety of the match. The Pride struck first with a 6-4 win at the No. 1 spot, but Raul Velasco Garcia (Barcelona, Spain) and Lluc Limongi Ollers (Mallorca, Spain) responded with a 6-4 win of their own in the No. 3 doubles match. All eyes would then turn to the No. 2 spot where Driss Sedrati (Casablanca, Morocco) and Jordi Fraile Raton (Sant Cugat, Spain) battled their way to a 6-6 stalemate, forcing a tiebreaker to decide the early advantage. However, despite being tied at 3-3 at the changeover, Purdue Northwest was able to pull ahead to claim the doubles point.

In singles play, Velasco wasted no time asserting himself at the No. 6 spot, racing ahead to take the first set 6-0 before finishing off his opponent in straight sets.  The pride claimed wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 matches to pull back ahead, but Fraile and Sedrati steadied the ship, each claiming straight-set victories at the No. 5 and No. 4 singles matches, respectively, tying up the score at 3-3 and leaving the battle of top-seeded opponents to decide the match for their teams. Limongi had stormed ahead in the first set, but his opponent fought back to force a third. However, despite rallying to close the gap with the support of all of his teammates behind him, Limongi would ultimately fall in a tightly contested match, breaking the hearts of the Laker faithful, bringing a memorable 2024 season to a close. 

The Lakers will now turn their attention to the offseason, looking to build off of their successes next year.