While making the beautiful trek down to Winona last Saturday, the Macalester men's tennis team was enjoying life, liberty and the pursuit of outstanding tennis. Hopes were semi-high that the team would start off its season against St. Mary's on a winning note and go above .500 for the first time in God-knows-how-long. After watching their female peers take the court in the first match of a women's-men's doubleheader, they were no more inspired than before but enjoyed the match anyway.

However, as men's tennis beat writer, I am forced to begin this season much like I ended last year's—writing about the team losing. A lot.

Despite a bright start to the match, the Scots (0–1, 0–1 MIAC) dropped a closely-contested season opener 6–3 and are now in a five-way tie for last place in the tight MIAC standings.

The Scots looked so good in winning two of three doubles matches that, during the doubles-singles changeover, fans were murmuring to one another that this could be it... this could be the year that the Scots hold aloft the conference championship trophy for the first time since 1968 and proclaim, "We are the MIAC Champions!"

David Yesilevskiy '03 and Spencer Edelman '06 gave the Scots an early 1–0 lead by annihilating Chad Brusky and Andrew Pamperin, 8–3, at number two doubles. Shortly thereafter, the number three tandem of Jake Depue '04 and Josh Fogt '03 fought through early jitters to beat Brian Haville and Dan Fahey, 8–6. "Those guys were terrible," said the cocky Depue. "Josh and I played like crap, especially me, but we actually have a little bit of talent, which those guys lacked completely."

After an 8–4 setback at number one, the Scots took a 2–1 lead into singles play. Unfortunately, that was about as good as it would get for Macalester as they proceeded to get slapped around.

The first casualty was number four player Nick "Worthless" Werth '06, who lost to the underhanded-serving Geoff Granseth, 6–3, 6–0. Werth's early exit was followed by Depue, who was dominated by freshman sensation Tyler Stevenson at number one, 6–3, 6–1.

Depue's match was highlighted by a second-set incident in which he received the first point penalty of the young season after chucking his racquet onto his bag and dropping a big F-bomb. "F*** that," Depue said after the match.

Peter Loken '03 grabbed the next seat on the losing train, dropping his match at number two 6–1, 7–5 to Mark Leeder. The Scots were staring at a 4–2 deficit with three matches to go, having to win all three to go home as winners.

Tensions were building as the matches at number three, five and six all split sets and went to decisive supertiebreakers. Despite having two match points, number three Yesilevskiy eventually fell to Haville, 11–9 in the superbreaker, clinching the match for St. Mary's. Eric "E-Town" Brandt '05 gave the Scots a consolation win, outlasting Fahey 10–8 in an intense superbreaker and giving the Scots their only singles win of the day. Edelman was last to finish, also getting to match point before eventually losing to Brusky, 13–11.

While the Scots might not win all the time on the courts, they are proving to be winners off it by launching their new charity, T.E.A.C.H. (Tennis Education and Community Helping). Next Thursday, the Scots are tentatively scheduled to make appearances at Twin Cities elementary schools to read books to youngsters and talk about how to handle the intense pressure of being a Division III tennis player.

"I think it's really going well," said Loken about T.E.A.C.H., "Jake, especially, is connecting with the kids. I think the whole pre-pubescent atmosphere gets him going, he's got a lot of really great things to say to the kids."

The Scots return to the court tonight as they travel to conference rivals Bethel in an attempt to get back to .500, even though 0–0 doesn't really count as .500. The next morning, Macalester travels to Chicago, where they will face two teams ranked in the Central region top ten: Wheaton (Ill.) on Saturday and Carthage (Wisc.) on Sunday. "We have a tough schedule coming up, hopefully we'll beat Bethel on Friday," Fogt said. "It's looking dim this weekend with Wheaton and Carthage, but I think we'll do better in the MIAC this year than last year."

"We can surprise some teams," Fogt added.

News and Notes: The season's first Purina Dog Food/Tires Plus Scintillating Scot of the Week Award recipient is Eric Brandt. "E-Town" brought his trademark take-no-prisoners attitude to the court last Saturday and vanquished Dan Fahey in a grueling affair, 4–6, 6–3, (10–8)… The home opener against Concordia, originally slated for Feb. 22, has been postponed until April. The new home opener is March 14 against Luther (Ia.). However, season tickets will still go on sale as planned the morning of Feb. 21. Remember, anyone who is interested in camping out to wait in line for tickets must pick up an orange wristband… For travel packages to Chicago for this weekend's matches, contact the Athletic Department or e-mail the Eberhardt Xtremists fan club, e_xtremists@hotmail.com.