Water polo sweeps final season stretch

• For their last four games before the Collegiate Water Polo Association championships, the water polo team ventured to Grove City, Penn. this weekend, where they super-soaked the competition in a clean sweep. Their performance earned them the second seed for the conference tournament next week.
• In their biggest win of the weekend on Saturday, March 29, the Scots bounded out to an early 9-1 first quarter advantage over Wheaton College (Mass.), which ballooned to a 13-1 lead by halftime. 
• Though the second half did not prove as fruitful for Mac, they won the game with ease as they drifted to a 17-5 victory. Mak Kratz ’28 and Molly Lemmon ’27 led the Scots in scoring in the blowout dub with five and four goals, respectively.

Softball mounts major comeback

• The Scots welcomed the University of Wisconsin – River Falls into the Macalester Softball Complex on Friday, March 28 for a doubleheader which the Scots swept, 7-6 in the first and 4-1 in the second.
• Mac pulled the rug out from under UW-River Falls in the 7-6 victory. After they scored just one run in the first six innings and allowed the Falcons to compile a five-point lead heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Scots came all the way back.
• The comeback came in a flurry of doubles. It started with Dylan Tapia ’28, who doubled to send one runner home. Then, Safiya Butler ’28 doubled to bring two more runs in. With two on and two out, Alli Johnson ’27 doubled to put another pair of points on the board and tie the game. Finally, for all the feathers, Callia Holland ’26 slammed the walk-off double to bring Johnson home and win the game.
• On Wednesday, April 2, the Scots opened conference play against Augsburg University…

Baseball drops conference opener, resets

• The Scots visited Collegeville, Minn. on Friday, March 28 for an afternoon doubleheader matchup against St. John’s University to mark the start of conference play. 
• Though Mac only allowed five total runs across the two games, they were unable to score any of their own and fell 0-3 in the first and 0-2 in the second. Macalester managed seven hits between the pair of matches, but couldn’t bring any home.
• On Monday, March 31, the Scots had better luck. They trounced the University of Northwestern (MN) in an 8-1 victory. 
• Nathan Gumagay ’26 had two RBIs, each on sacrifice flies, and bagged two runs of his own in their taxidermy of the Eagles.

Men’s tennis tarnishes spotless MIAC record

• At long last, the men’s tennis team has relinquished their hold on a perfect MIAC record. After a 2-0 start in-conference followed by an extensive series of non-conference games, the Scots fell twice this weekend.
• Their first loss was a stunner against Gustavus Adolphus College, who blanked Mac 9-0 at the Baseline Tennis Center. 
• The second loss was closer, as Macalester fell 3-6 to St. John’s University in Sartell, Minn. on Sunday, March 30.
• Alec Sargent ’25 accounted for two Scot wins with an 8-7 (7-2) victory at first doubles with Liam Lynch ’25 and a 4-6, 6-1, 10-4 victory at first singles. Zach Dajani ’28 accounted for the other Scot win at sixth singles, 7-6 (8-6), 7-5.

Men’s golf opens spring schedule in Waverley

• The men’s golf team traveled to Waverley, Iowa to start their spring season on March 28 and 29 at the Wartburg College Invite. There, they finished fifth of the seven teams at the Prairie Links Golf Club with a two-round score of 634.
• Aaron Cheng ’28 led the Scots with a score of 154 to tie for 14th. Liam Sarmiento ’28 followed him up with a 158 that landed him in a tie for 25th place.

Women’s tennis falls to Bennies

• Mac visited Sartell, Minn. on Sunday, March 30 for a dual with the College of Saint Benedict. The meeting left the Scots again defeated, 3-6.
• For the third time this season, Elizabeth Trevathan ’26 and Savannah Haugen ’26 accounted for all the Scots’ points. The duo won 8-5 together at first doubles, Trevathan won 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 at first singles and Haugen won 6-1, 6-2 at second singles.

Scots Siestas

For most athletics teams, a season lasts three, maybe four months. They play a game or two each week — or occasionally 10, in the case of baseball and softball during spring break — and total anywhere between 10 (football) and 40 (softball and baseball, depending on how well their season goes) before all is said and done. But two sports, golf and tennis, have seasons that span the entire school year. 

To be clear, these two teams are not in competition from September to May. They each have hiatuses in the middle as they wait for Minnesota’s annual freeze-and-thaw-and-freeze-again extravaganza to pass, which splits the season in two.

For golf, the hiatus lasts about six months. This year, both teams completed the MIAC Golf Championships on Oct. 7. The men returned to action this past weekend at the Wartburg College Invite, and the women will return this coming weekend on April 5 for the same competition. 

The real oddity here is the tennis season. Tennis’ break spans four months. They played their last fall dual on Oct. 6 against Concordia College (Minn.) and returned to action on Feb. 1 against the University of Wisconsin-Superior. 

While golf holds their championships in the fall and returns for a few (inconsequential?) invitationals in the spring, the tennis teams play meaningful competitions that have implications for their standing in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) on both sides of the break. 

They have a few weekends of ramp-up duals before they return to conference play, which means they have almost a full five months between MIAC competitions. Then, to add to the bizarre stretch, this season they had another month of non-conference games before they finally started conference play for good this week. 

That’s: play in the fall, wait four months, play a month of non-conference games, play one conference game, play another month of non-conference games, and then finish off that same fall season of conference play, but now it’s April.

In most seasons, this scheduling irregularity would have little bearing on the team. Everyone experiences the same break, so although it’s strange to have four months off, it’s a level playing field. Sometimes, however, a team does something drastic. Say, change coaches during winter break. Then, that gap becomes significant. Only time will tell how the Scots’ siesta this season will impact their MIAC fortune.