Following the start of their season with a near-landslide victory against Lancaster Bible, the Blue Jay tennis teams took on Catholic University on March 1 and Goucher College on March 2. Both matches took place on the Alumni Courts at Elizabethtown College.
The initial doubles matches did not start well for the Blue Jays men’s teams. Etown sophomore Stefanos Billis and junior Max Lauver took on Catholic juniors James Earwood and Diego Romo on the first court. While the Blue Jays fought for two game wins during this match, the set ultimately went to Catholic with a final score of 2-6. This was the best doubles match for the men’s team that day, as every other set ended with a score of 0-6.
Some of the singles matches went similarly for the Jays and Cardinals. Etown senior Sam Langer and sophomore Kyler Henne took on Catholic sophomore Drew Andrianopoulos and junior Henry Ogden, respectively. While Langer and Kenne managed to win a sparse handful of games, the Catholic athletes ultimately overwhelmed them and walked away with the victory.
The rest of the singles matches did not feel like as much of a clean sweep as every other match, however. Lauver and Etown sophomore Ryan Kraychik won against Catholic’s offense, forcing their sets into a third game. While neither Blue Jay won, Kraychik refused to give up and ended his final game with a score of 8-10.
The Etown men’s team did end up walking away from the event with one win. Billis shut down Catholic first-year Lorenzo Neri in the first game of their set with a score of 6-1. While Neri tried to bounce back in the second game, he could not shatter Billis’ defense. The second game ended with a score of 7-5.
For the women’s matches, Catholic went from a near-landslide to a complete shutout. Several games saw Blue Jays athletes go 6-0 against Catholic, and while some Etown athletes tried to recover from Catholic’s offense and bounce back, the Cardinals kept winning. The final score for both events were 6-1 and 7-0, respectively.
The next day did not seem much kinder for the Jays. The women’s match against Goucher ended up being postponed, leaving only the men’s team to take on the Goucher College Gophers. The doubles matches went almost exactly as they did with the match against Catholic, with the Jays only scoring points in one of the matches and every other one becoming a landslide.
During the singles matches, the Gophers continued to sweep the entire day with non-stop victories. Only one Blue Jay, Billis,managed to win a single set, and they still couldn’t keep up. By the end of the day, the meet ended with a score of 0-7.
The Jays’ current season record now stands at 1-5. The next few matches for the tennis teams—against Albright College on March 22 and King’s College on March 29—will also occur at Elizabethtown’s Alumni Courts. Afterwards, they’ll continue progressing through their landmark matches with a game against Moravian University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on March 30.
