Competing without its No. 1 player, the Muhlenberg women’s tennis team suffered a 5-4 loss to The College of New Jersey in a marathon match that ended late Sunday night.

With their entire lineup shifted up a spot, the Mules (1-1) stayed strong at the top, but the Lions (8-0 for the school year), ranked 15th in the Northeast Region, won at third doubles and fourth through sixth singles to pull off the victory.

Sophomore Amy Schmidt was an impressive replacement at No. 1, teaming up with junior Emily Oster to defeat a TCNJ doubles team that is ranked third in the Northeast and took seventh at the ITA Nationals in the fall. Schmidt also came back after dropping the first set to win her second straight match at first singles, this one against a regionally ranked opponent.

Oster won her singles match at No. 3 in similar three-set fashion, charging to the net on match point to drive home the winner.

The loss snapped Muhlenberg’s 11-match spring winning streak.

Click here for box score.

Freshman Jacquelyn Inverso won Most Outstanding Performer honors for the field events to lead the Mule women’s team to a fourth-place finish, its best in 10 years.

The Muhlenberg men were one point out of second place heading into the final event,

Inverso will attempt to improve her NCAA chances next week at Ursinus. The Division III Championships are scheduled for March 12 and 13 at Wis.-Whitewater.

but despite running a season-best time in the 4x400-meter relay, they wound up third. It was their fourth straight year in the top three.

Inverso took home Muhlenberg’s only two gold medals, capturing the triple jump and high jump. She is the first female in program history to win two events at a conference championship meet, as well as the first to earn Most Outstanding Performer recognition. Her mark of 36-11 in the triple not only broke the school record she set two weeks ago by more than a foot, but it also eclipsed the NCAA provisional standard.

Inverso, who missed the “triple jump championship” by one spot (she was second in the long jump on Saturday), also placed fifth in the 55-meter high hurdles.

“You have to do your best here because you’re competing for the team and every point counts,” said Inverso. The Mules made all their points count, racking their highest total ever (104.5) at the CC indoor meet.

In addition to Inverso’s triple jump mark, two other school records fell on Sunday, and sophomore Karen Mount was involved in both of them. She broke her own standard in the 5,000 meters, finishing seventh, and she ran second on the third-place 4x800 squad (along with Samantha Sachleben, Stephanie Conicella and Diana Garretto) that lopped seven seconds off the previous school record.

Sophomore Danielle Seiler nabbed her second silver medal of the meet by taking second in the 400, two spots ahead of junior Katie Macomber.

The men scored one-fifth of their 95 points in one event, the shot put, and they were poised to finish 1-2-3 until a Haverford thrower let loose the best heave of the meet on his last attempt.

“That’s a good victory for the team because it gives us 19 points,” remarked senior Frank Santini, who had to settle for the silver in spite of a throw that was longer than his gold-medal performance of last year. Right behind him were a pair of freshmen, Andy Wilkins and Matthew Sallese.

“It’s the first time I’ve had people on the team challenge me in practice,” he added. “They coach me, and I coach them. It’s a good two-way street.”

The top scorers for the Muhlenberg men’s team were freshman Lex Mercado and junior John Brodowski. Mercado was second in the 800, fourth in the 400 and in the top five on three relay teams. Brodowski earned medals in three events (second in the high jump and third in the long jump and high hurdles) and led off the fifth-place 4x200 relay foursome.

Click here for Muhlenberg placewinners.
Click here for complete results.