New head coach Bob Macaluso hopes to turn his young squad (only five upperclassmen out of 24 players) into a Centennial Conference contender. The only senior on the team, Marc Lezinski (right), is the ace of the pitching staff and received credit for half of the Mules' eight wins last year. The school's all-time leader in strikeouts per nine innings, he enters the season needing 71 whiffs to break the school career record of 185. Junior centerfielder Chuck Draper hit .358 and drove in 23 runs in 1998 en route to earning second-team All-CC honors for the second straight year. Junior infielder Chris Moraitis (.322) received honorable mention.

Softball
The softball team has adopted the slogan "Muhlenberg Pride -- There Are No Limits" for the 1999 season. The Mules are dreaming big, right down to the ambitious schedule coach Ruth Gibbs has put together. The scheduled opponents combined to win more than 61 percent of their games last season, and five of the eight NCAA regional champions are on the slate. If Muhlenberg is to improve on last season's 16-21 mark, it will have to get contributions from the five seniors on the squad -- catcher Elizabeth Billie, first baseman Khara Pappadakis, third baseman Jackie Vanderstreet, centerfielder Ali Hatola (right) and all-purpose player Shelly Markowitz -- all of whom have received all-conference honors during their careers. Billie, an all-region selection, hit .374 with 26 RBI in 1998, while Hatola is the school's all-time steals leader. Talented first-year pitchers should help reduce the workload of junior Heather Dreby, who set a school record with 29 appearances last spring.

Golf
The Mules are just two years removed from their shared Centennial Conference championship of 1997 and hope to return to the top after a successful fall season that saw them win tournaments at Gettysburg and Moravian and play close to defending champ Western Maryland in head-to-head matches. Juniors Matt Skilton (left) and Matt Deibert have both finished in the top five of the CC Tournament, and senior Bryan Mullins had the team's best fall stroke average (79.8). Jeff Tipping also has a talented trio of freshmen, two of whom shot in the 70s in the fall.

Lacrosse
Head coach Laurie Kerr engineered a big turnaround for field hockey in the fall and hopes to have similar success with the lacrosse team. It will help that the Mules return their top four scorers from last year, including seniors Katie Kenny (right) and Allyson Crooks, who rank third and 10th, respectively, on the all-time scoring list. Kenny scored 55 points, the second-best total in school history last year. Sophomore Miruna Lovin (40 points) and junior Shannon Lowther (26) round out the returning scorers. If the young defense can step up its play, Muhlenberg should find enjoy its first season playing on AstroTurf.

Men's Tennis
Muhlenberg has improved its win total each of the last two years, finishing with a 7-4 record in 1998, and should continue its upward climb if senior Jon Mandelbaum, a former all-conference selection, can avoid the injuries that limited him to three matches last spring. He will join sophomores Robby Richman (14-7-1) and Adam Evans (13-4), both all-conference picks as rookies, and senior Jared Shafer (left), the Mules' active career leader with 34 wins, to give coach Stacy Rowley a solid top of the lineup. Richman reached the semifinals of the prestigious Rolex East Regional Tournament in the fall.

Women's Tennis
The players on Linda Andrews' roster have earned a combined total of only five letters. But three of them belong to a super trio of sophomores who helped the Mules win five of their final six matches to wind up at 6-6 in 1998. Stephanie Powers (right) was 8-7 in singles play and reached the semifinals of the Centennial Conference Championships, Kerri Waldowski had a seven-match winning streak, and Marissa Lutzer posted a team-best 16 wins in singles and doubles.

Outdoor Track & Field
The track program will begin a new era in 1999, its first season with an on-campus all-weather track. On April 24, the Mules will host their first track meet in more than a decade when Moravian travels down Route 22 for a dual. Coach Lou Di Lullo hopes the new era brings new results at the Centennial Conference Championships, where Muhlenberg has never finished higher than fifth. Previous champions such as seniors Stephanie Kaliner (above; long and triple jump) and Jeff Thiel (shot put), junior Kurt Kunsch (pole vault) and sophomore Katrina Beck (high jump) will try to lead the teams to new heights and distances.