OWATONNA – The Albert Lea High School boys’ tennis team is enthusiastic and has high hopes for the 2003 season, but the Tigers had a tall order in their season opener.

They lost 7-0 to perennial Big Nine power Owatonna on the Huskies’ courts Friday.

“For the first meet of the season, I was pretty proud of the way our boys handled the adversity and the situation,” said coach Sean Gillam. “We went into it thinking we can compete with them, and that’s definitely the attitude we need to have, but we ran into a great team. Owatonna has won or tied for the Big Nine championship two of the last three years.”

The Tigers, meanwhile, picked up their first win in five seasons last year and look to make more progress this spring. They did already at doubles, according to Gillam.

“Our doubles teams won more games than they did last year against Owatonna, and we had a singles player filling in for Paul Marlin, who was sick, at No. 3 doubles,” said Gillam.

The closest match was No. 2 doubles, where Micah Holt and Corey Dieser lost 6-1, 6-3. Stephen Thorn and Greg Peterson were defeated 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles while Eric Hutchison and Brian Christianson lost 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3.

Adam Luebke, a senior co-captain with Hutchison, lost 6-0, 6-2 at No. 1 singles. Conner Keyeski fell 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2, Kurtis Bohrnstedt was swept 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3, and freshman Andrew Dyrdal lost 6-1, 6-0 at No. 4.

“We did score a lot of points in a lot of the games we lost, and the boys played with confidence, which was good to see,” said Gillam. “It’s good to face tough competition early. We just need to build from here.”

The Tigers host Fairmont in a rescheduled nonconference meet Monday at 4:30 on the Southwest Middle School courts.