The Lawrence High boys tennis team had a midterm of sorts Tuesday afternoon. LHS coach Dick Wedel gave his players a test, but never passed out any No. 2 pencils.

At a home quad with Olathe South, Shawnee Mission South and Shawnee Mission West, Wedel wasn’t so much concerned with the overall performance of his 3-9 Lions.

The longtime teacher was looking for two things from his pupils: physical exertion and sharp mental showing of “tennis grade-point average.”

Olathe South posted the best record of 10-2, followed by Shawnee Mission South (8-4), Lawrence and Shawnee Mission West (3-9). But did the Lions get a passing grade?

Well, it’s hard to say.

“Who wants to play? I’m looking for effort,” Wedel told his players during the quad. “I don’t want you to tell me you want to play. I want you to show me.”

Some Lions stood out, including junior Curtis Wakeman, who lost his singles match. That was not important. Wakeman battled. He scratched and clawed so much against Shawnee Mission West’s Danny Cummings that the match had to be decided by a tiebreaker Cummings won, 10-8.

“He just hustles for every ball,” Wedel said of Wakeman. “He doesn’t have the skills that everyone else has. But he tries hard and has a passion about it, and I appreciate that.”

The doubles team of Gardner Burg and Noah Welch exhibited the same never-say-die attitude that Wedel was seeking in the third round versus Spencer Pozek and Mark Barlett of Shawnee Mission South. Burg and Welch fought to a tiebreaker and won.

Wedel tinkered with his doubles teams during the quad.

“It’s such an inexact science,” Wedel said of matching the right compatibility with the right chemistry. “They’re still dating. We haven’t exchanged any mementos yet.”

Sam Goodell and Rahul Gogineni comprised the other winning doubles team as they defeated Austin Brown and David Leonard of Shawnee Mission West, 8-4.

The only LHS singles victory came via Burg, who beat SM West’s Cody Recalde, 8-6.

As for that “tennis GPA,” the Lions can get used to hearing the phrase.

“The team has a tremendous team GPA, but let’s improve on the court. What’s your tennis GPA?,” Wedel said. “Making unforced errors is dumb. Double faulting is dumb. Those are things in your power that you can control.”

The Lions will travel Saturday to Topeka for the Highland Park Invitational.