The Muhlenberg women’s tennis team had one of its best season ever in 2001, tying a school record with 11 wins to reach double digits in victories for the first time since 1987. In the Centennial Conference, the Mules tied for third place with a 7-3 record after never having finished higher than sixth place previously.

So will the Mules be able to do even better this spring? They’ll know by the end of the week:

Chung tied a school record with 22 combined singles and doubles wins in spring dual-match play.

Two of the three CC teams to defeat Muhlenberg last year – defending champion Swarthmore and Washington – are on the schedule this week (Wednesday and Saturday, respectively, both at home). The Mules are scheduled to open their spring season against Kutztown at home tomorrow.

Muhlenberg appears well-stocked to climb in the standings. Four of the regular singles players from last year return: Sophomore Mackenzie Parke (No. 1 last year), senior Jennifer Chung (No. 3) and sophomores Sarah Niebler (No. 5) and Megan Schreiber (No. 6).

Parke was named to the All-CC first team after going 10-5 in singles play, including a win against the defending conference singles champion. Chung was 12-3 at singles and teamed up with Parke in doubles play to defeat a duo from Methodist that was the top seed at the NCAA Division III Championships.

Niebler was 9-1 after entering the singles lineup early in the season, including a perfect 7-0 mark at fifth singles, and Schreiber set a school record with 13 singles wins.

Also returning to the lineup is sophomore Gena Ross, who missed most of last spring with an injury but played in the upper half of the ladder each of the last two fall seasons.

Woods’ triple in the third inning drove in the Mules’ eighth run of Game 2.

The Muhlenberg softball team sweated out a seventh-inning rally before hanging on to defeat Susquehanna, 9-8, and earn a split of its home opener. The Crusaders took the first game, 3-2 in eight innings.

That seventh inning produced the only sweating that went on during the second game, which was played in intermittent snow flurries and temperatures that hovered around 30 degrees.

The Mules (7-3) scored five runs in the first inning of Game 2, two coming in on a triple by sophomore Danielle DeLucia, then extended their lead to 7-0 the next inning on a two-out, two-run double by sophomore Kate Dischino.

Muhlenberg led 9-3 heading into the seventh, but Susquehanna (7-6-1) scored three runs on five straight hits off DeLucia. Freshman Ally Ogden came on in relief and hit the first two batters she faced, forcing in one run, then walked the third to send another runner home. With the bases loaded and the potential tying run on third, Ogden induced back-to-back ground balls that resulted in forceouts at home, ending the game.

The win gave Ruth Gibbs 106 career victories in her five-plus seasons as head coach, tying the team record set by Brian Bodine (1985-90).

In the first game, the Mules trailed 2-1 when junior Meghan Woods led off the bottom of the sixth by ripping the ball down the right-field line and circling the bases for her second home run of the season. Susquehanna, the defending Commonwealth Conference regular-season co-champion, scored the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth, which was played under tiebreaker rules. Muhlenberg had runners on second and third with nobody out in the bottom of the inning but could not push the tying run across.

Click here for line scores.