Two games.
There are two more games before everything the seniors on the men’s tennis team have worked for since they first arrived at MSU comes to an end.
Senior Gijs Linders can still remember his sophomore year when MSU earned their first bid to the NCAA Tournament in 2013. He said it’s something he’ll never erase from memory.
The window for accumulating once-in-a-lifetime achievements at MSU is slowly closing, and even though the reality is that his tennis career at MSU is reaching its final checkmark, it hasn’t fully hit the Amsterdam native.
Coming off his final home meet this past Sunday following a 7-0 defeat from No. 32 ranked Minnesota, Linders said the feeling of finishing his final regular-season campaign won’t be real until he settles down and focuses on something other than tennis.
“I’m just too busy making the best out of it,” Linders said. “I think it’ll hit me once I sit down over the summer and realize that I have to go to work.”
One of the many things Linders had to wrap his mind around in the beginning of January was that this would be the last time he could play collegiate tennis.
Fellow senior Doug Zade admitted he doesn’t want to think about hanging up his racket anytime soon either. He said tennis has been a focal point of his life.
Zade also wants the underclassmen to realize this time in their lives does not last forever.
“You want to focus on the end goal but enjoy the process,” Zade said. “I think if I look back on my career, I realize that some of the stuff, like practices and 6 a.m. working, was definitely tough, but in the end of the day, you’re going to miss it.”
Tuesday, in preparation for their weekend matchup with Purdue, there was a positive vibe circulating through the outdoor courts.
It’s been a roller coaster-type season for the Spartans, who are sitting in the bottom third of the conference standings, as well as riding a five-game losing streak that began in early April.
The recent pattern of consecutive defeats hasn’t fazed Linders yet, as he strives to individually finish out the schedule strong.
“Earning first-team All-Big Ten honors is definitely a personal goal of mine,” Linders said. “I just want to leave the program with a good mark on it so the guys who are juniors and sophomores can take the torch from us and know what we expect.”
Zade’s goals are more team focused, because victories are always a main priority for any program.
“(The goal is) keeping the team morale alive and do the best that we can,” Zade said. “And just trying to do the little things right as a team. What it comes down to is to get as many wins as we can.”
