The Tigers faced off against some high caliber tennis programs at North Point Christian Thursday, as 3 of the top 10 state ranked teams were in this regional.  The team battled earning 5 first round wins.  Four of the next 5 matches were against the #1 seeded flights.  The players fought hard winning many games, but could only secure one upset.  This was Jed and Carter at #1 doubles.  Beating the #1 seed from Calvin Christian 6-4, 6-7, 7-6.  Karlton also won his semi final match beating NPC 6-0 6-3.  The Tigers competed well in both the regional finals but couldn't come up with the win.  1 Doubles went down 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 and 1 singles 6-3, 6-3.  Karlton advances as an additional individual qualifier to next week's State Finals held at Hope College.

The Tigers finished off the regular season with a win vs Sparta tonight.  The guys swept all the flights winning 8-0.  The team will be competing at North Point Christian Thursday in Regionals.  Karlton Zerlaut will lead the team as the number 1 seed at #1 singles.  All the doubles are seeded and the boys will look to advance to next week's state finals at Hope College. 

The Grant Tigers played some of their best tennis Saturday at the conference tournament.  The team put 5 of the 8 flights into the championship matches, winning 4.  First year plyaer, Eli Bradley at 4 singles won his first match on the day, then gave the #1 seed a battle in a competitive loss, and then finished the day beating Ludington 6-3 7-5.   Kyle Bay and Isaac Higgins got the guys going in the first final of the day beating #1 seeded Ludington 6-1 6-2, avenging an early season 3 set loss.  Next was the 3 doubles championship, where Trent Patton and Diego Krepps started out down a couple games, but came back to win 6-4 6-2 over Ludington.  Grant's senior captain Dustin Slachter and partner Payton Swinehart beat North Muskgeon 3 & 4 at the 2 doubles championship flight.  Carter Chase, another senior and team captain, along with Jed VanderWeide squared off against Ludington at the final of #1 doubles.  The Tigers played well, but couldn't overcome some great serving and net play by the top seed.  Kalrton Zerlaut reached the finals of #1 singles for the 3rd straight year and was the last match playing.  Zerlaut was ahead 4-3 on serve in the third set when rain stopped play on Saturday.  The 2 competitors returned to Whitehall to finish the match in the late afternoon on Monday.  Karlton put the pressure on with some good returns to go up a break and then closed out the championship with 4 first serves to become the top player in the tournament for the third consecutive year.  The Grant TIgers finished with 34 points, 3 points behind #8 state ranked Ludington.  

The Tigers faced North Muskegon for a battle for 2nd place in the Coastal Conference in the final conference dual of the season.  The guys were ready to go, even after 2 days of heavy rains that kept them off the courts.  Karlton Zerlaut got the team started with a 6-0 6-1 win at #1 singles.  Carter Chase and Jed VanderWeide took the competitive first set at 1Doubles 6-4 and then closed the match out 6-0.  The rest of the doubles continued to put the wins on the board with Payton and Dustin taking 2 Dubs.  Diego and Trent secured the 3 flight.  And Kyle and Isaac completed the doubles sweep at the 4 position.  The match of the day went to first year player Eli Bradley at 4 singles.  After losing the first set, he didn't give up and came out and won the second set 6-0.  In the third set match tiebreaker, Eli jumped out to an early led and won 10-3.  Tigers 6, Norseman 2.  The team now prepares to battle at the conference tournament Saturday at Whithall and Reeths Puffer.

The Tigers hosted the Grant Invitation today.  After an hour plus delay with wet courts, the guys got things going quickly and finished the day with 36 points to win the tournament.  The doubles teams all were 3-0 on the day taking home the championship medals.  Jed and Carter dominated at 1 Dubs.  Dustin and Payton served strong to claim the 2 doubles flight.  Diego and Trent vollied their way to gold at 3 doubles.  Kyle and Isaac fired big shots to win the 4 doubles flight.  For the second straight year and the third time in his four year career, the top player of the tournment was senior Karlton Zerlaut.  Only losing 3 games on the day and winning all 3 matches, Karlton is now 22-1 on the year.  Comstock Park finished with 35 points, Coopersville with 29 and Hastings was 4th.  

The Grant tennis squad hosted Big Rapids tonight.  The Tigers dominated the top singles and doubles flights without dropping a single game (6-0 6-0).  Nice work Karlton and Carter & Jed.  Dustin and Payton won at 2 Dubs and Trent and Diego got the point at 3rd doubles.  The balance of the match hung on the shoulders of senior 3rd singles player, Matt Hautamaki.  The match was 4-3, with Big Rapids winning at 2 and 4 singles as well as 4 doubles.  Matt had won the first set 6-4 and got up a break of serve early in the second set.  His opponent fought back to take a 4-3 lead.  However, Matt fought back to go up 5-4 and served out the match 6-4.  Winning the deciding point for the host Grant netters.  GRANT 5  BIG RAPIDS 3.

The Tigers traveled to Fremont and brought home a 7-1 victory.  The Doubles teams swept the host Packers.  Dustin Slachter and Payton won at 2D 6-0  6-0.  Trent Patton and Diego Krepps got the thrid doubles win and Kyle Bay and Isaac Higgins were victorious at 4 dubs.  The Grant top doubles team, Jed VanderWeide and Carter Chase, won 6-1 6-0.  Karlton Zerlaut took the #1 singles match 6-0 6-0.  The last two matches on court went almost 2 and 1/2 hours.  Riley Holmberg at #2 singles and Matt Hautamaki at #3 singles each went the full 3 sets and both claimed the hard fought victories 6-4 in the final set.  The guys are home Thursday vs Big Rapids.

The Tiger tennis team competed in the Sailor Invite today.  The Grant squad squared off against mostly D1 and D2 schools in an 8 team tournament finishing with 5 points despite being without their top doubles team.  Karlton Zerlaut was the top player in the tournament as the champion at  #1 singles flight.  He beat Lowell 6-0 6-1, Zeeland West 6-1 6-0 and Byron Center in the finals 6-4 6-4.   Karlton now has 77 wins in his high school career, becoming the winningest player in school history.  The team got wins from Dustin Slachter and Payton Swinehart at #2 doubles and Kyle and Isaac Higgins at 4 doubles.  Trent Patton and Diego Krepps went 3 sets in their final match pushing Lowell to the limit.  The other Tigers played well gaining valuable tough match experience.  

Grant played host to the state ranked #8 Ludington team tonight.  The guys played hard and got the #1 doubles and #4 doubles matches into the third sets, but lost them both 6-4.  The Tigers top player, Karlton Zerlaut, picked up his 74th career win (all at #1 singles), with a 6-3  7-5 victory.  This ties him with former All State Doubles player Tyler "Skinny" Smith for the most wins in a career at GHS.

The Tigers hosted state ranked #11 Whitehall and pulled out a tough 5-3 win.  The team swept the doubles, led by senior captians Carter Chase and Dustin Slachter.  Carter, at #1 doubles with Jed VanderWeide winning 6-0 6-2 and Dustin paired with Payton Swinehart at 2 dubs winning 6-2 6-1.  Diego Krepps and Trent Patton only gave up 3 games at 3 doubles and Kyle Bay and Isaac Higgins closed out the doubles with the win at 4.  Eli Bradley fought the first set to a tiebreaker barley getting edged by the visitors 8-6.  Senior captain, Karlton Zerlaut was the last match on in a dog fight at #1 singles.  Winning the first set 6-4 and losing the second 3-6 in almost 2 hours, the top 2 players went to the final set.  Karlton started out strong, racing out to a 3-0 lead, but the opponent fought back to win the next 3 in a row to tie the score.  The next 3 games were close, but Karlton won each of them to claim the hard fought victory 6-3 in almost 3 hours.  The Tigers are host to state ranked #8 Ludington Wednesday.

The Tiger tennis players traveled to the Caledonia Invite Saturday playing against bigger schools, facing Lowell and Caledonia.  The guys played well bringing home 7 medals.  Carter Chase and Jed VanderWeide won 6-1 6-0 in the final to take the gold medlas at #1 doubles, improving to 11-3 on the year.  The team's #1 singles as well as the team's 3 & 4 doubles took home runner up medals.

The Tigers hosted WMC for their first home dual match.  The host team jumped out to an early lead sweeping the doubles only dropping 1 game.  Nice work; Carter, Jed, Dustin, Payton, Diego, Trent, Kyle, and Isaac.  The Tigers got the win at #1 singles 6-0 6-0 by Karlton.  Eli Bradley fought back in a marathon match that almost lasted 2 hours, winning 4-6 6-4 6-2 at #4 singles.  Riley Holmberg played a close match at #2 singles going 3 sets.  The team heads to Caledonia on Saturday and will be back home next Wednesday.

The guys tennis team traveled to Traverse City St Francis to face 3 teams in the top 10.  Karlton Zerlaut stayed undefeated on the season winning the #1 singles flight 6-2 6-0 in the finals.  Dustin Slachter and Payton Swinehart were the runner ups at 2 doubles fighting #6 ranked Ludington 6-4 6-3.  Diego Krepps and Trent Patton took the runner up medals at #3 dubs also in the finals with Ludington going 7-6 (7-4) in the first set.   Kyle Bay and Isaac Higgins took 3rd place winning 6-1 6-2, after a hard fought semi final with Ludington going 6-7 5-7.  The Tigers #1 doubles team of Carter Chase and Jed VanderWeide won 2 matches including 2 sets without giving up a singles game, but couldn't quite get past Ludington today.  Riley Schwartz won 2 matches at #5 singles.  The Tigers finished the tournament in 3rd place with 9 points.  Ludington took first, #8 ranked TCSF took 2nd, and #9 ranked Whitehall finished 4th with 6 points.

The Grant Tigers traveled to another land of Tigers down in Allegan for a tough tennis tournament Saturday.  The guys played hard and competed well.  At the end of the day, Karlton Zerlaut was the tournament champion at #1 singles, not dropping a game for the first two matches and beating Allegan 6-2 6-2 in the final.  Matt Hautamaki took 2nd place at #3 singles.  Also taking runner up medals were 1 doubles, 2 doubles, and 4 doubles.  Carter and Jed won at tough 3 set match vs Gull Lake and gave Allegan a super match winning 7 games at #1 doubles.  Payton Swinehart and Dustin Slachter made a big comeback vs Lakeshore to secure the win 7-5 in the second set at 2nd doubles.  Kyle Bay and Isaac Higgins playing at the 4 dubs flight beat Lakeshore in a 3 set battle and dominated Gull Lake in their last match.  Riley Schwartz and Daniel Stong closed out the tournament in style beating the Lakeshore team 7-5 in the last match of the day at #5 doubles.  The Grant Tigers finished with 15 points to take second place behind the top 10 ranked Allegan team.

The Grant netters traveled to Portland to face off against 3 other Division 4 foes.  Rain delayed the start a couple hours and forced the team to shorten the format, but the tournament did get played.  Karlton Zerlaut was undefeated on the day only losing 4 games to claim the top player of the tournament award.  Senior Carter Chase and junior Jed VanderWeide also claimed the 1st place medals at #1 doubles.  The junior duo of Trent Patton and Diego Krepps took home the runner up medals at #3 doubles.  Riley Holmberg playing at #2 singles went 3 sets with the North Point Christain player.  Eli Bradley played great in his first singles matches going right down to the wire with the Garber #4 singles player.  Dustin Slachter and Payton Swinehart did not lose a game in their first match and battled to 3 sets vs Portland.  Kyel Bay and Isaac Higgins had 2 very close matches to start the day and then only dropped 1 game in their last match at #4 doubles.

The Tigers played senior heavy Plainwell in their second match of the day Monday afternoon in humid conditions.  The team dominated at the top singles spot with a win by senior Karlton Zerlaut 6-1 6-0.  Grant's #1 doubles team of Carter Chase and Jed VanderWeide recorded a 6-2 6-0 victory.  Trent Patton and Diego Krepps went to the third set for the second time on the day at second doubles, coming back after dropping the first set, to force the match tiebreaker, but couldn't quite secure the win.  Kyle Bay and Matt Hautamaki played a tough 4-6 5-7 match at #3 dubs.