Men's Tennis Team Diaries
Each week throughout the 2001-02 school year, members of the Purdue men's tennis team will be sharing their experiences in diary entries. This week’s entry comes from Scott Mayer.
Monday, March 18
I woke up at 8:15 a.m. with the normal breakfast consisting of cereal and a little Sportscenter. MGMT 306 (Management Science) with one of the best professors on campus, Murat Koksalan, began at 9:30 a.m., followed by OBHR 428 at 10:30am. After class, I headed over to the IAF computer lab to get a head start on the MGMT 306 homework. Practice went from 3-5 p.m., with conditioning afterwards. The 4-line shuttle relay highlighted today’s conditioning. It’s simply just a lot of running with no recovery time. You gotta love it! T-Roy (Troy Havens) and I finished middle of the pack. Weights with Tyson and Greg followed the running. KAL and I went to the women’s basketball game that night, where unfortunately the team came up short of the Sweet 16.
Tuesday, March 19
The day got started at 7:30 a.m. with ECON 415 and POL SCI 130. Once again, I headed over to the IAF computer lab to battle with the MGMT 306 homework. With a little D-Swa (Dan Swan) help, I was able to knock out most of the homework. The temperature was around 45 degrees so we were forced to practice indoors. It was my duty to pick up our frosh, Chronic (Sounak Chatterjee) and D-Rob (David Robinson). They had to listen to my country music the whole way there. But they’re frosh, so what can they do? Practice was done by 4 p.m. and I was finishing up the MGMT 306 homework by 6:30 p.m. After a group meeting at 8 p.m., I went home and caught the tail end of the movie "Bloodsport". Gosh the acting is brutal in that movie. After a little study session with KAL, I hit the sack.
Wednesday, March 20
The day began with the same class schedule as Monday. After class I went home to relax and watch some TV. I usually flip to the Food Network if there is nothing else on, and my roommates, Latum (Laith Al-Agba) and T-Dub (Seth McKinley,) give me a hard time about it. I just don’t see where they have room to talk since Laith watches "Three Sisters" and Teen Wolf watches "Beverly Hills 90210". At 1:30 p.m. I had my weekly individual with Coach Madden. We worked on forehand strike along with a few other things. Practice lasted from 3 to 5 p.m., followed by Ultimate Frisbee in the Mollenkopf. The game was cut short when Laith, who I was guarding, sprained his ankle. For some reason, whomever I guard or drill with in practice rolls their ankle. Coach Madden rolled his ankle on my foot playing frisbee a few weeks ago. Sounak rolled his ankle one day before spring break when he was drilling with me. If I keep this up, we’re not going to have enough players to field a team. Our usual Wednesday Fazoli’s All-You-Can-Eat followed practice. That night I watched my team (San Antonio Spurs) put an absolute beating on the L.A. Lakers, 118-90. Timmy D (I know you like that, T-Dub) went off and the Admiral was a defensive rock like usual. Watch for a similar score during the playoffs.
Thursday, March 21
One of my classes was cancelled and one moved to 7:30 p.m. so I was able to sleep in. Practice only lasted one hour as a result of the women’s tennis match with Notre Dame. It was a solid, high-intensity one-hour hit. I had to go to POL SCI 130 at 7:30 p.m. because we were watching an hour and a half video about war and couldn’t fit it in during normal class. I made dinner after class and then sat down to watch some of the games from the Big Dance. I’m hoping for a Cinderella story this year.
Friday, March 22
This morning was no different from Thursday. My only class of the day, OBHR 428, was cancelled, which allowed me to sleep in again. So I did nothing this morning, and it was everything I thought it could be. My Mom flew in from good ole SA (San Antonio, Texas), so I picked her up from the Union at 2 p.m. We had practice from 3 to 5 p.m., and then we headed home. My Mom took KAL and I out to Olive Garden for dinner that night. All I gotta say is that their alfredo sauce is amazing. I went to bed when we got home to get rested for this weekend’s matches.
Saturday, March 23
We had a short 20-minute team hit at 9:30 a.m. to get everyone up and moving. My Mom and I dined at Einstein’s Bagels before our 1 p.m. match. After lunch, we headed over to the LSC (Lafayette Sports Center). We were able to pull out a 4-3 victory over. We won the doubles point and were able to win singles matches at the No.1, 3 and 6 spots. C-Mac (Carl McCafferty) and T-Ha (Troy Havens) stayed in the fight throughout their matches and came up big for the team today. After the match, My Mom and I saw the movie "In The Bedroom" (it’s not what you’re thinking) and then had dinner at McGraw’s, one of my favorite restaurants.
Sunday, March 24
We had another short practice in the morning but today it began at 9 a.m. My Mom and I ate lunch at 2451-E and then drove over to the LSC for our noon showdown with 32nd-ranked Indiana State. Swanny (Dan Swan) and I got things started with an 8-3 doubles victory. At 3-3 in our doubles match, Swanny started jawing with our opponents and it was pretty much over after that. No. 2 and 3 doubles won, which put us up 1-0. The easy part was over and the difficult part was about to begin: the singles. No. 2, 3 and 6 singles lost, which put us down 1-3. I was able to win my singles match to make the score 2-3. That left Drew (Andrew Wakefield) and T-Ha out there. I’ll just tell you right now that we won the match 4-3. T-Ha showed so much heart and won four-straight games in the third set to even the score at 3-3. Drew battled back after losing the first set to claim the latter two sets and give us a 4-3 upset win. I give Drew so much credit for showing resiliency from the match before and coming up with the win. All I can say is Drew and T-Ha played like champions today and that’s what this team needed. I’m proud to be a Boiler!!
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