The Elizabethtown College men’s and women’s tennis teams finished their fall season with a successful Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Individual Championships.
After a successful day in the first half of the tournament, five women’s singles players and all three doubles teams moved on to the semifinals. Senior Madison Pipkin was seeded first in the No. 2 singles where she received a bye and bested King’s College’s Maddie Griffin. Fellow senior Kristi Noecker moved into the semifinals with a win over Stevenson College’s Svetlana Widell. Sophomore Christine Evangelista beat King’s Nicole Molino in order to continue on to the semifinals and junior Adriana Scotto fought her way in with a pair of wins. Rounding out the group was sophomore Sarah Calabro, who defeated Lycoming College’s Katie Walker and Wilkes University’s Cayleah Markulies.
In the doubles brackets, the Jays seemed unstoppable. Seniors Allison Burkhardt and Pipkin won through a tiebreaker against Lebanon Valley College’s Amelia Capuano and Christie Graf in the No. 1 doubles bracket. Noecker and Scotto paired together in the No. 2 bracket, where they went undefeated through all games on the first day.  At No. 3 doubles Evangelista and sophomore Kaitlyn Pellegrino won two matches and moved into the next round.
On championship Sunday, it was all doubles, all day. The Jays picked up their first doubles titles at the MAC Individual Championships since 2006. Two of the three doubles teams that entered the semifinals came out victors.
Burkhardt and Pipkin came out on top in the No. 1 doubles final, and Evangelista and Pellegrino brought home the second win in the No. 3 bracket. Pipkin said, “I think winning the tournament was big for us; we have been playing together since freshman year and have hit some bumps along the way, but this past weekend we were able to beat some teams that we have repeatedly lost to.  We just went out there, had fun, and played probably the best doubles we ever have together.” Pipkin is looking forward to the spring season, stating, “We are excited for more matches in the spring. We know we are a good team and now we finally have a title to prove it.”
In singles, the Jays narrowly missed multiple championship titles. Noecker tied Jodi Weidman ‘91 for third place on Etown’s career singles wins list with her 57th, but was unable to pick up a win in the finals. Pipkin, Scotto and Calabro also finished second in their brackets.
The men’s team advanced five singles players and three doubles teams into Sunday’s matches. Senior Eric Fritzges moved past Eastern University’s Dan Fowler after receiving a first-round bye. Senior Paul Whitman swept Hood College’s Luis Cotto to tie graduate Greg Voshell for fifth place amongst Etown’s all-time singles winners. In the No. 5 bracket, senior Billy Freitag and sophomore Michael Cannon moved on to the semifinals. First-year Alejandro Diaz won two matches to move up in the No. 6 singles bracket.
Three of the four Jays’ doubles teams made it through to the next round. Fritzges and fellow senior Josh Riehl were awarded a bye and won their second match 8-2. Freitag and Whitman followed suit with a bye and an 8-1 win.
Cannon and junior Cole Turula moved on to the next day with two 8-0 wins in the No. 3 bracket.
Unfortunately, the team was unable to bring back a title on Sunday. Only Whitman and Cannon were left in the running after the semifinal round in singles. Whitman was unable to beat Wilkes’s Michael Kranz in the final. Cannon lost to Clarke Freeman, also of Wilkes, 6-3, 6-3 in the championship round.
Fritzges and Riehl returned in the doubles matches and won a close match 8-6, but were unable to reproduce their performance in the semifinals, losing 8-5. Freitag and Whitman won two matches to get to the finals but were bested by Wilkes’s Kranz and Peckham. The No. 3 doubles team of Cannon and Turula lost in the first round on Sunday. Cannon said, “I think as a team we did very well at this year’s MAC tournament. Our doubles teams have great chemistry which leads right into success and our team is looking to have another strong spring season and be in contention for another MAC championship and shot at nationals.”
With the end of the MAC Individual Championships, the Blue Jays complete their fall season. Their next match will be during spring break against Roanoke College. In the spring, the women look to defend as the three-time conference champions. The men have three seniors looking for their 100th win: Fritzges, Riehl and Whitman.