The Muhlenberg women’s tennis team had an outstanding season last year in which it was 12-1 overall and 9-1 in the Centennial Conference. This record created a tie with Washington College for the conference championship.

With five returning players and the addition of five newcomers, the Mules are ready to step up and play hard in order to maintain the title CC co-champions.

“This is a team with better talent, more depth, and they are stronger than last year’s team,” said Head Coach Linda Andrews. “We have the ability to defend the title. It all comes down to this week because we play Swarthmore and Washington, the two strongest teams in the conference. It also comes down to each member of the team being mentally tough at the start of the season.”

Returning for Muhlenberg are juniors Gena Ross, Mackenzie Parke, Sarah Niebler, Megan Schreiber and sophomore Emily Oster.

Ross, who was named to the All-CC tennis team in singles, has a career record of 31-11. Parke, an All-CC tennis team member in doubles, has a 42-28 career record. Oster, Ross’ doubles partner last year, has a career record of 24-7-1 and was 8-2 in CC play last year. Niebler, who competes at fourth singles and third doubles, has a career record of 47-11. Her doubles partner, Schreiber, who competes at No. 5 singles, was 9-1 in CC play.

The Mules began their season with a 5-4 loss to College of New Jersey a month ago and have eight consecutive Centennial Conference opponents on the upcoming schedule, starting at Swarthmore tomorrow.

Sophomore Gregg Burkhart struck out 13 in a complete-game performance and classmate Matt Long singled in the game-winning runs as Muhlenberg came from behind to edge Moravian, 6-5.

Burkhart allowed only five hits – none after the fourth inning – and one earned run. He struck out seven of the last eight batters, including the final five, to match the most whiffs by a Mule hurler since Steve Rau fanned 13 against Swarthmore in 1994. Burkhart struck out 11 batters in his last start and has 24 Ks in 17 1/3 innings this season.

The Greyhounds (4-4) opened up a 5-1 lead after four innings by scoring three times on first-and-third steal plays and on a two-run triple.

The Mules (7-3) chipped away with single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh. In the eighth, sophomore C.J. Kessler blooped a single into center with one out for his third hit of the game. Sophomore Aaron Regensburg followed by walking on four pitches, and junior Adam Sadler moved the runners up with a groundout. Long, who singled in Muhlenberg’s first run, lined a 1-0 pitch into right-center to plate Kessler and Regensburg with the go-ahead runs.

The Mules’ 7-3 record is their best after 10 games since the 1978 team started 8-2. Five of their wins are by two runs or fewer.

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• Men’s Tennis: Muhlenberg improved to 2-0 for the spring with a 6-1 win at Elizabethtown.

The Mules won five of six singles matches in straight sets, dropping a total of only 14 games in their five wins. Senior Matthew Fleissig (No. 4) and sophomore Mitchell Reading (No. 6) both won 6-0, 6-0.

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