The Middle School Tennis Team put a historic season on the books this year, possibly one of the best in school history. By that, of course, I mean that they won more than one match. Against Fort Worth Country Day, the first match of the season, they recorded the first Cistercian sweep against another team. For the past few years, it has been the other way around, so they all went crazy after the match, flooding the court and trying to carry the person who won the winning match on our shoulders. Coach Boyden sadly stopped them. I guess a 7th grader’s death wouldn’t look good on his resume. They went on to win many more matches, even tying St. Marks, knocking them off their high horse for the first time in recent history. However, the team didn’t do all these truly astonishing things by luck, or even raw talent. The team was a closely knit group. The team didn’t descend into the usual arguing over the line calls or the score. The eighth-grade veterans gave consistency to the team, and the seventh-grade team brought a TON of firepower, especially in the two who inadvertently became extremely annoying to the eighth graders because of how much better they where, despite being a year younger. Jokes and Coach Boyden impressions abounded (his famous “Go to Track” never gets old), but when it was time to get down to business, they got down to business, practicing as hard as they could. Overall it was a great season: successful, fun, and, most importantly, St. Marks-tying. This tennis year will live in the member’s hearts.