Nearing the end of a tumultuous tennis season, playoff implications came into sharp focus for the men’s team as they welcomed the College of St. Scholastica on Sunday, April 13. Beat the Saints, and the Scots would most likely seal a berth in the five-team playoff tournament. Lose, and they would put into jeopardy a playoff streak dating back to 2018.
After losing two of three doubles contests, the Scots needed four of the six singles wins to emerge victorious. As the afternoon ticked on, all six singles matches were close-run affairs.
Kangyu Li ’27 was the first to enter the super tiebreak, the ten-point decider played in lieu of a full final set. Li, after he lost the preceding set, saw his opponent maintain that momentum and deliver a narrow 10-8 win for the Saints.
Soon after, Lucas Wood ’25 nearly faced the same fate in his own super tiebreaker, going down 8-5 and on the verge of losing a contentious match on No. 2 singles. Back against the wall, he fought on. Mirroring his super tiebreak comeback against Hamline University five days earlier, Wood won five straight points to win the match, keeping the team in the fight.
After Li’s loss and Wood’s win, the Scots needed to take three of the remaining four singles contests, and each would come down to fine margins. Every singles match would end up going into third set tiebreakers. Despite a gutsy win from Alec Sargent ’25 on No. 1 singles, the Scots would only be able to win three of the six singles matches, losing narrowly, 5-4, and sending their season down to the wire.
The season has been full of matches decided by one point — three wins against non-conference foes, a win at Hamine, the loss at home to Scholastica. It’s more than this senior class has played in their entire time as Scots.
“I had almost none of those up until junior year, my entire career,” Wood said. “Last year, to clinch the playoffs, we had a big 5-4 win away at St Olaf [College]. But this year, so far, we’ve already had four. And then on Tuesday we beat Hamline in a ‘clinch.’ And then [against St. Scholastica], we lost 5-4.”
Liam Lynch ’25 attributed the team’s penchant for close matches to their depth; on any given day, anyone can step up and contribute points.
“What’s been really unique about this year is we don’t have any positions where we’re playing at a disadvantage,” Lynch said. “All of our matches have come with wins from different positions … It’s been great, because we know everyone is going to give it their all, and even if they don’t get there, there’s going to be other guys on the team to do the same thing and put us in a position to win.”
In a season marked by a midyear head coaching change, the team has dealt with uncertainty. New Head Coach Chase Johnson has largely stayed the course.
“My approach has been to keep most things similar to how they’ve been done in the past in this program, and I’ve been leaning on the seniors to help me do this,” Johnson wrote in an email to The Mac Weekly. “I definitely knew I wanted to use my own approach when it came to what we did during the practice, so that is where the most changes have been made.”
Lynch, one of the team’s seniors, lauded Johnson’s work as coach.
“The program feels infinitely better with Chase in charge,” Lynch said. “Chase has been a phenomenal addition to the program. He’s not coming in in the best position, but he’s done a phenomenal job for both programs, and we’re just really excited to see where the program goes, even if I won’t get to be a part of it for the next couple years.”
Those seniors — five of the team’s eight members — add a significant element of continuity to this program, through the midseason coaching change. They’ve been through much of this before, having already switched head coaches once, in 2023, though that change didn’t happen in the middle of the season.
They’ve also had a playoff race come down to the wire. In 2024, they had to win a de facto play-in against St. Olaf on the final day of the regular season. This year’s finale will shape up the same way.
The last two matches of the regular season will be away against Bethel University, then a home finale against those same Oles the very next day, April 26. Despite a win in the Bethel match keeping the Scots’ hopes of a winning conference record afloat, and some degree of lingering animus between the Scots and Royals, the real target will be the Oles, two conflicting sentiments that players expressed.
“We’re in a position now which is interesting, where Bethel is kind of irrelevant in terms of standings, and the St. Olaf match at the end of the season becomes the win-and-in for the playoffs,” Wood said. “But Bethel, you know, they’ve always been rivals of ours down Snelling. We don’t necessarily get along super well with that team while I’ve been here.”
Lynch echoed those sentiments.
“Obviously, St. Olaf is the one that’s more on our minds, because it’s win and you’re in, lose and you’re out,” Lynch said. “But I mean, it’s Macalester against Bethel. We’re not gonna exactly lie down for Bethel. We’re gonna make sure that we give Bethel everything we can.”
That do-or-die affair will be at home. Johnson emphasized the role that crowd support could play in that match, as did Wood: “I would love to have as many people out as possible,” Wood said. “We got St. Olaf on the last day, with high-stakes fun out there. You’ll see us screaming and yelling against a rival. It should be a good match.”
Johnson’s addition to this program has arguably saved it from the existential predicament it faced over the winter: the imminent departure of five of eight players, and no head coach. Now, with two games remaining, this squad plays to save its season.
