Junior Alexander Hotz crossed the line fifth out of 66 runners to lead the Muhlenberg men’s cross country team to a fourth-place finish at the season-opening Lehigh Valley Championships. The Mule women came in sixth.

Hotz came in behind three runners from host Lehigh, which won the meet for the fourth year in a row, and one from DeSales. It was an improvement from his ninth-place showing last season.

Sophomores Lex Mercado (25th) and Tim Seeley (27th) also finished in the top 30. In the team scoring, Muhlenberg trailed the three higher-division schools and was 23 points better than DeSales. Moravian did not field a complete team due to injuries.

The women were led by senior Jenna Belisonzi in 21st place and junior Karen Mount in 27th. Freshman Sara Gearin was the Mules’ third runner in her collegiate debut.

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Junior Julie Lauro moved closer to the 1,000-kill mark with a total of 32 as the Muhlenberg volleyball team opened the 2004 season by splitting a pair of matches at Moravian’s Greyhound Premiere Classic.

The Mules swept Shenandoah in three games following a season-opening four-game loss to Gallaudet. They finished second in Pool B to go into Saturday’s Gold Bracket, where they will face Swarthmore and York (Pa.).

Muhlenberg nearly pulled off a big comeback against Gallaudet. After dropping the first two games, the Mules won the third, 30-21, and had two game points in the fourth. They proceeded to fight off a Gallaudet game point before the Bison finally put away the match, 34-32.

Lauro totaled 17 kills, 10 digs and five blocks. Freshman Jess Anselmi fueled Muhlenberg’s fourth-game effort by serving six straight points.

The Mules came back to win three close games against Shenandoah, 30-26, 30-28, 31-29. They almost squandered big leads in both the second and third games, but held on. Lauro ended the match with an emphatic spike, her eighth of the game and 15th of the match. She now has 985 career kills and needs 15 more to become the fourth player in team history to reach the 1,000-mark.

Sophomore Kate Haggerty contributed 10 kills, while sophomore Monica Sella had eight, Anselmi six and sophomore Courtney Williams five. Junior Mary Henning recorded 33 assists and nine digs, and freshman Megan Young bolstered the defense with nine digs.

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