Muhlenberg senior forward Mark Lesko added one more accolade to his impressive resume when he was named ECAC Southern men’s basketball player of the year in voting by the coaches of the ECAC schools in the region.

Lesko is the first Mule ever to be named ECAC player of the year.

His postseason awards tally is as follows:

• All-America (first team)
• Finalist for Jostens Trophy (national player of the year)
• Middle Atlantic player of the year
• ECAC Southern player of the year
• Centennial Conference player of the year
• Lehigh Valley player of the year

Sophomore Susan Marchiano of the Muhlenberg women’s basketball team was an ECAC Southern second-team all-star.

The Muhlenberg women’s tennis team opened its Centennial Conference play for the 2002 season by knocking off defending league champion Swarthmore, 8-1.

The Garnet was ranked 21st in Division III after the fall season and had

Niebler improved to 7-0 for her career in CC singles matches with her 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 5.

won 16 consecutive CC matches, but the Mules (2-0) won with surprising decisiveness. Muhlenberg did not lose a set until the final match of the evening.

“We really wanted this match,” said senior Jennifer Chung. “We knew we were capable but it’s always been mental. For this match, we had the attitude that we would win and not let them intimidate us. We were the aggressors the whole match.”

The Mules swept the doubles matches, including an 8-3 win by Chung and sophomore Mackenzie Parke at No. 1 against a Swarthmore duo that is ranked 26th. Chung and Parke won the first two games without losing a point, then reeled off the last four games.

“We’ve been working a lot on doubles [in practice],” pointed out Chung. “We really fine-tuned our strategies and our mental approach. That’s why we came out with such confidence. Mackenzie and I were completely in tune with each other. We knew they were going to be a tough team, but we just did not let them daunt us.”

In her No. 1 singles match, Parke opposed defending CC champion Anjani Reddy, a 2001 All-American who is ranked 23rd. Parke, who suffered a 6-4, 6-0 loss to Reddy last year, won the first set in a tiebreaker, then rallied from a 5-2 deficit to force a tiebreaker in the third set, only to fall by a 7-5 score.

Sophomores Gena Ross, Sarah Niebler and Megan Schreiber and freshman Emily Oster all won at both singles and doubles for the Mules. Schreiber’s 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 6 was her 14th straight in singles play, setting a new school record.

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