Teamwork, playing to your partner’s strengths and communication are the core foundations for any successful doubles team. Senior Frideric Prandecki and junior Rob Lowe, who form State’s No. 1 men’s tennis doubles team, are doing each of those things well.

“A lot of playing doubles is knowing who you’re playing with and knowing what kind of shots they’re going to hit and [Prandecki and Lowe] have a good grasp of that,” coach Jon Choboy said. “They know how to pick each other up. Some doubles teams can turn on each other but they are always covering each other’s backs. They bring out the best in each other.”

The duo is ranked 54th in the International Tennis Federation poll and the season is just getting started. Prandecki and Lowe are 6-2 overall and have won two upset matches thus far this season, with victories over the No. 27 duo of Diego Cubas and Ivan Machado from South Carolina as well as the No. 1 doubles team from No. 33 Michigan.

“The reason why we have excelled this year is we have worked on little aspects of our game,” Lowe said. “We widened our boundaries of what we can do.”

The doubles team has been playing and practicing together for the past three years, yet Lowe said it still has not met all of its goals.

“I don’t think we have accomplished what we have set out to accomplish,” Lowe said. “I think there’s a lot more work we need to do, and a lot of things we need to work on. Our goal is to remain consistent. “

The goal for any doubles team is to make the NCAA tournament at the end of the season, where only the top teams complete. But for Prandecki, the tournament and rankings are not his main concerns.

“My expectation is not really the end result but the journey itself,” Prandecki said. “When we get to the end I want to look back a few years from now and say that it was awesome.”

In order to get to that point, the pair needs to keep its mental focus, according to Choboy.

“If they don’t beat themselves they will be tough to beat,” Choboy said. “The matches that they’ve lost, they beat themselves. If they don’t make those mistakes then they win. They both have really big serves and help each other hold serve. They just got to go out and do it.”

Strokes and talent aside, the duo’s chemistry on the court radiates throughout the rest of the team.

“We know each other’s game and we know what servers we’re going to hit and what ball we’re going to hit,” Lowe said. “We have a lot of chemistry on the court.”

Prandecki and Lowe, as well as the rest of the team, spend hours on the court, yet they also spend quality time with each other off the court.

“We all hang out together in whatever we do,” Prandecki said. “It helps. We’re a lot closer and we’re playing for each other. No one is playing for himself.”

Supporting the team is all that Prandecki was able to do in the past. During the majority of his first three years with the Pack, he was watching from the sideline, waiting for his turn. Now, after hard work and determination, his time has come in his fourth and final year, and he is stepping up effectively.

“I have been on the sidelines the past three years and now this is my time to shine,” Prandecki said.

According to Choboy, Prandecki’s consistent effort has made him a good leader.

“He’s worked hard to get to this position,” Choboy said. “People respect him for busting his hump in order to get where he is, and that’s the best leadership.”