The Blue Jays were ready to compete on Saturday when they traveled to Washington, D.C. to take on Catholic University in women’s tennis. The Jays picked up their fourth straight win on a 6-3 victory and advanced to 3-0 in the Landmark Conference. Then on Sunday, the Lady Jays traveled to Salisbury University to take on the eighth ranked team in Division III.
On Saturday against Catholic, sophomore Madison McCall and first-year Sam Procak almost had a clean sweep in their number three doubles match. The two Blue Jays only dropped one game to Maria Flores and Sarah MacLean of Catholic. The final score of that match was 8-1.
Catholic answered by winning two singles matches by senior Liz Harvey and sophomore Laura Torsiello to put the Catholic Cardinals (11-5, 3-3 Landmark) over the Elizabethtown Blue Jays (9-4, 3-0 Landmark).
McCall’s wins in three sets in her singles match, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, gave McCall her 13th win of the season. “We take our matches one at a time and play the same way no matter who we are up against,” McCall said.
The Blue Jays fired back by winning the rest of the singles matches to continue their undefeated conference record and prepare themselves for a very tough Sunday.
While not winning Sunday against the Salisbury Sea Gulls (13-5, 5-1 CAC), The Jays were close in every match. The final score of the non-conference match was 8-1 in favor of the Sea Gulls.
Helsel was able to stop the Sea Gulls from completely shutting the door on the Blue Jays expanding her win column to 11 for the season.
“There is nothing I don’t like about this sport,” McCall said. “Winning a tough match with your teammates cheering you on is the best feeling in the world.” McCall almost got the win in the doubles match and her singles match. The score of the doubles match was 8-5 and singles match was brought into the second tiebreaker.
Senior Kaitlyn Pellegrino was not able to pull out the singles win either, as she competed hard against senior Kaitie Youlios, bringing the match to a 7-5, 6-4 decision. Pellegrino said, “My teammates are as stubborn as they come and they won’t go out without a fight. It’s the stubbornness and the will that unnerves the opponents and gives us the edge to win.”
Coming off the achievement of winning her 100th match last month, the senior Blue Jay gave some feedback about her teammates, “I absolutely love my teammates,” Pellegrino said. “We are all so different but we become a small family and I’m so blessed to play, fight, win, lose and cheer by these ladies.”
Pellegrino and the Jays are closing out the season and have their eyes set on the Landmark Conference Championship to be held on the 29th of April. Before that, the Jays have six more matches to play including four conference matches. The next match will be played tomorrow on the road against Landmark Conference foe, the University of Scranton.
