Senior Eric Fritzges has become the third men’s tennis player in Elizabethtown College history to achieve 100 career wins after beating Alvernia University’s Daniel Minnich 6-2, 4-6, 10-3. His 100 wins came from 48 singles matches and 52 doubles.
The rest of the men’s team pulled their weight and led the Blue Jays to a win against the Crusaders Sunday, March 24. The 8-1 victory makes the men 6-0 on the season.
On Saturday March 23, both the men’s and women’s tennis teams defeated Harford Community College at the Alumni Courts.
The Blue Jays swept the Fighting Owls in a 9-0 rout. This was the team’s first doubleheader match that was held at home, and they saw success in all of the matches.
Seniors Kristi Noecker and Madison Pipkin picked up an 8-3 victory over Sonora Ijdo and Erika Richardson. “Doubleheaders are always fun because we all get to play at the same time, against the same team, and we get to support each other at the same time,” Pipkin said. For Noecker, this was her 60th win in doubles play, which is only 4 wins away from conquering Heather Lander’s career record set in the 2005-2006 school year.
Sophomore Christine Evangelista achieved her 30th win in doubles with sophomore partner Kaitlyn Pellegrino. The doubles matches concluded with an 8-0 win from junior Adriana Scotto and sophomore Nicole Snitzer. “We played well in doubles considering two of the three doubles teams were playing with new partners that we don’t normally practice with,” Scotto said. “Despite the freezing cold weather and wind we played well and didn’t let it affect us.”
They certainly did not let it affect them in singles either. Pipkin, Noecker, Scotto, Evangelista, Pellegrino and sophomore Sarah Calabro all walked away with wins in the singles competition Saturday afternoon.
The women then took on Lycoming College Tuesday, March 26. In the team’s first conference match of the season, the Blue Jays were dominant with a 9-0 win over Lycoming. Four of Etown’s singles players defeated their competitor 6-0, 6-0.
The men’s tennis team had success just as outstanding as the women’s team, conquering Harford CC with an 8-1 win. Seniors Fritzges, Paul Whitman and Josh Riehl were all able to zero in on achieving the milestone of 100 career wins each. Fritzges reached 99 victories after winning in both his singles match and his doubles match. Riehl and Fritzges defeated Harford’s Farai Chiridza and Tyler Cook in an 8-2 decision in the doubles match and therefore added to their win totals that are working their way up to that 100 mark.
Though Chiridza defeated Riehl 7-5 in singles play, Riehl was still able to reach 93 wins. Whitman increased his win total to 96 with partner senior Billy Freitag. They defeated Vladislav Sluchenkov and Brandon Wolf 8-1 at No. 2 doubles and then Whitman overcame Sluchenkov again in the No. 3 singles.
Fritzges, Freitag, Whitman, junior Cole Turula and sophomore Michael Cannon all walked away with victories in the singles competitions.