Jesse Ferlianto

Past Entries

Entry 1

Entry 2

February 23, 2004

Last week we prepared for our first matches of the season against Division III opponents. Finally, after weeks of long practices in the cold, winter afternoons, and after weeks of semi-weekly morning workouts, we were on the road to competition. Our destination this time was the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.

On Sunday, we were scheduled to play two matches against South region rivals, Rhodes College (TN) and Sewanee (TN). It was a rough Sunday morning as we got up early and planned to be on the road by 8:30 a.m. Typical Emory students do not wake up that early on Sundays, period. But that's the way we Emory men's tennis Eagles soar. We were all packed up and ready to go by 8:25 a.m. Or were we? Head count: 7. We were aiming for 8.

Junior transfer Josh Rubens had us on the edge of our seats waiting for him 'til the last minute; maybe the Sunday morning rush hour held him back. Perhaps there were more people than usual going to church that particular morning. Or maybe his alarm died.

Either way, we were worried because he wasn't picking up his phone. We decided to stop at the local gas station and pick up our road trip necessities while waiting for him. A few minutes later, we saw Josh, sweaty and visibly shaken, pull up in his glacier white Jetta. He parked his car in the BP visitor parking lot, leaped out and hopped into our van. We greeted him with hugs, smiles, and cheers. "Don't sweat it, Josh. We like the pressure."

The road trip to Sewanee was peaceful and gorgeous. There was not a cloud in the sky. The wind was calm and the air was fresh. An hour into the trip, half of us fell asleep. We arrived at Sewanee with an hour to warm up. It was nice that we crossed time zones midway into the trip, giving us the extra hour. Spreading out across four courts, we initiated our warm-up rituals. Jacobs and Odgers didn't need to stretch or warm up, so they started pounding balls right away. Redmond and myself were the opposite.

Our first match was against Rhodes. Our boys played well, as we coasted to a 7-0 victory. Odgers and Tyson (our usual 1 and 2) sat out of the singles lineup that day, so it gave us an opportunity to test the depth of our lineup. Athlete of the week Alex Jacobs came up with a decisive 6-3, 6-1 win at the No. 1 spot against an opponent who gave him more trouble last year. Things were looking good as we started our first Division III match with a bang.

We celebrated with lunch at Subway. Steak & cheese, meatball, chicken, ham, turkey, tuna, you name it, we ate it. We went down the line as the workers behind the counter served us in a "Henry Fordesque" assembly line. I don't think that the quiet, isolated, Sewanee Subway has ever seen that many hungry boys all at once. Being at the end of the line, I picked up my team's Subclub tickets since no one picked up their share. Two tickets x 10 foot-longs = that's 20 tickets. Love it!

Our next match began at 3 pm against the host team, Sewanee. They had declared on their web site that they would "play anyone at any time," so we figured we'd take that invitation and play them on their turf. A few hours later, we finished battling our way to a 7-0 win.

Alex Jacobs pulled through in a long grinder of a match, 6-7, 6-4, 7-5. By the third set, dusk had fallen, and temperatures dipped into the low 40s. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a relaxing ride back to Hotlanta, not without stopping for some McDonald's on the way and stuffing ourselves with yummy grease-coated foods.

Most of us came home and immediately hit the books to finish up assignments due the very next day. We were especially glad when the time finally came to lay our bodies down to rest, as we prepared ourselves for another challenging week in the life of an Emory student-athlete.

Jesse Ferlianto is a sophomore from Canyon Country, Calif. He would love to answer e-mail questions from Emory recruits and fans.