With the conclusion of the regular season, Ferris State tennis heads to Midland to play in the GLIAC tournament.
Ferris is no stranger to the GLIAC tournament. The men’s team has made the series yearly since 2009, except for 2020 when the tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19. The women’s team failed to make the series in 2023, but they made the tournament every other year.
Both teams are coming off losses to Wayne State. Head coach Mark Doren is confident that both his teams can bounce back from the respective losses.
“It was a tough day for the Bulldogs, but we are still confident in what we’ve accomplished this season and will be headed into the GLIAC tournament with plenty of confidence,” Doren said. “The men had three singles matches that, if just a couple of points go our way, we walk away with the win. As for the women, we will be playing a very good Davenport in the first round of the tournament. The loss to them at the end of the season hurt, but we are a little banged up right now, and hopefully, a long holiday weekend full of rest, we can get healthy and be ready for our first match.”
Women’s
Ferris State (11-7, 6-2 in GLIAC) ended the season 5-1 in their last six matches. The Bulldogs have advanced to the NCAA tournament in 2021 and 2024 but went one-and-done both times.
The women will be playing a Davenport (11-12, 3-5 in GLIAC) team that the Bulldogs beat earlier in the year by a 5-2 score. Davenport went 3-3 in their six matches in April, including ending the season with two straight losses.
Senior Kennedy Dumas plans to take the tournament one match at a time.
“I think the keys to playing good tennis are focusing on the match you’re playing in the moment,” Dumas said. “It’s easy to overlook teams that you’ve beaten earlier in the season and assume you’ll beat them again. The main thing we’ll have to focus on to advance is the team that’s right in front of us. We’ll have to use what we learned the first time we played each team to help us move deeper into the tournament and hopefully to the NCAA regionals.”
Men’s
The Bulldogs (11-7, 5-2 in GLIAC) ended the season going 3-1 in their four matches in April. The two losses in GLIAC play were against Grand Valley and Wayne State respectively. Ferris will likely be getting a rematch against Wayne State (14-6, 5-2 in GLIAC), a team they just played and lost to in the final match of the regular season by a 5-2 score. Wayne State went 4-1 in their final five matches in April, including a 7-0 win on the road at Roosevelt.
As the lone senior on the team, Alessandro Santangelo is confident his team can bounce back after the tough loss to end the season.
“It’s important to keep working hard and take care of the little things,” Santangelo said. “There’s no reason to get down about ourselves and be negative after the losses, because we were so close. There’s a good reason to stay hungry after losses that could’ve been our match. I just remind the guys to give everything they’ve got and leave it all out on the court.I’m confident in us that we can win the tournament this year.”
The GLIAC tournament starts on Friday, April 25, for both men and women. The tournament will be played through the weekend on Saturday, April 26, and Monday, April 28, with the time for the first serve on all three days yet to be announced.