Tennis Info:
About the Women's Tennis Program
The Elizabethtown College women’s tennis team has a long history of success since becoming a varsity sport in 1961, and head coach Matt Helsel is currently guiding the program through one the most successful runs in its distinguished history.
The Blue Jays have produced 32 winning seasons in 48 years, including eight in a row from 1990 to 1996 (Two seasons were held in 1993, one in the spring and one in the fall, due to the realignment of the Middle Atlantic Conference). A total of 11 Elizabethtown teams have won ten or more matches in a season, led by the 2006-07 team that went 17-3 overall, and followed by the 2004 and 2005-06 squads that posted respective 14-0 and 14-4 marks.
The 2007-08 team set a new standard for the program by winning the Commonwealth Conference championship and earning its first-ever trip to the NCAA Division III tournament. The squad finished with a 14-4 overall record, including a perfect 4-0 mark in conference play.
Recently, the Blue Jays have achieved consistent ITA regional rankings every spring and fall since the spring of 2004 (Since 1993, the Middle Atlantic and Commonwealth Conferences have played their traditional seasons in women’s tennis during the fall, and the Blue Jays now play a highly competitive non-traditional season schedule in the spring that for the last four years has included a trip to Hilton Head, S.C. over Spring Break). Elizabethtown won back-to-back Commonwealth Conference titles in the fall 2004 and fall 2005 seasons, and the Blue Jays were the Commonwealth runners-up in the fall of 2006.
Over the last four years, Elizabethtown has gone 58-11 in dual matches and has appeared in the conference title match each time.
Individually, Beckie Donecker and Jenny Haifley were the first women at the College to win a national title, claiming the 1981 AIAW Doubles Championship (The AIAW was the national championship before the advent of the NCAA Division III championships for women’s sports in 1982). Donecker posted a 10-0 record in the following regular season and won the 1982 NCAA Division III National Singles crown. In three seasons, Donecker had a record of 34-2 as the Blue Jays' number one singles player.
Jodi Weidman '91 set a College record for most wins in a career, compiling a 57-11 mark at No. 1 singles and a combined total of 95 singles and doubles wins from 1988 to 1991. That combined win record stood until the 2005-06 season, when Kristy Trimbey '06 ended her career with 55 singles wins and 57 doubles for a career record of 112-31. The record books were again re-written in 2006-07 as Heather Lander '07 closed out her career with 68 singles wins, 63 doubles wins and 131 combined wins. Stacy Shapiro '07 also wrapped up her career that year with 54 singles wins, 54 doubles wins and 108 combined wins. Lander, Trimbey and Shapiro are currently the only three Blue Jays to amass 100 or more total career victories.
Following the fall 2007 season, Emily Swarr '10 was named Commonwealth Conference Player of the Year, and was joined on the first time by Emma Smith '08. Alice Yu '09 was named second-team All-Conference, and went on to win the MASCAC singles championship at flight three. Smith (#2 singles) and the doubles team of Swarr and Jessica Russell '10 (flight two) earned runner-up honors.
Beginning in the 2005-06 academic year, women's tennis is officially counted as a year-round sport rather than as a strictly fall sport as it was in the past. The Commonwealth Conference and the MASCAC have their regular season and playoffs in the fall, but the NCAA tournament is held in the spring. Starting in the 2006-07 academic year, the Commonwealth Conference champion receives an automatic NCAA Division III tournament berth.
