18
CampiAS
Recreatio!^
UntramiArals
May 1,1997
Sports
Jen Leone
Softball
Thursday, May 1
Men's -
5:15 p.m.
Tri-Lamb vs.
BATAB &Company
6:15 p.m.
Chows vs SoftbaU
team
Women's -
5:15 p.m.
Dixie Belles vs.
AHA
6:15 p.m.
Wonderwoman vs.
Creep mob
@ the Firehouse
Fields
New Supervisors-
In-Training are
needed for Fall ‘97
Intramurals.
Applications are at
the Campus
Recreation desk,
and interviews will
begin soon.
Call ext. 2780 and
leave a message
with your name and
number if
interested.
Men's Tennis Wins 8th SAC
Title; Women Finish Second
Colleen Herndon
Sports Editor
After winning seven straight
South Atlantic Conference cham
pionships, the men’s tennis team
added its eighth one this past week
end in Salisbury.
However, the women’s tennis
team could not pull off an upset
against No.l ranked Presbyterian,
losing 5-1.
The women are preparing for
the regional tournament this week
end at Elon. The men are ranked
No. 1 in the region and automati
cally skip regionals and receive a
bid to the national tournament. The
women will be vying for a bid to
nationals in Springfield, Mo. dur
ing the regional tournament.
The men defeated Lenoir-
Rhyne (9-0) and Wingate (5-0) to
get to the finals of the SAC tourna
ment. I'he Fightin’ Christians eas
ily defeated Presbyterian 5-0.
Several Elon players were hon
ored for their outstanding play this
season. Senior Robert Eskilsson
was named Player of the Year and
All-Conference. Adriano Blacutt
was awarded Freshman of the Year
and All-Conference. Ning
Dalodom, Daniel Neuman and Jan
Friden were also named to the All-
Conference group.
As the top player on Elon’s
squad, Eskilsson was pleased with
his team’s success this season and
during his career at Elon. “We
started out slow,” Eskilsson said,
“...but I look back on it as a really
good season.”
“We (the team) always have a
lot of fun,” Eskilsson said. “We
have a great bunch of players.”
The Player of the Year said he
will miss his tennis team, not nec
essarily his tennis career.
“I’m not tired of it (tennis),”
Eskilsson said. “But my hunger for
tennis is saturated.”
Head Coach Tom Parham was
also honored as Coach of the Year.
The men’s tennis team believes
it will be competitive in the na
tional tournament and could pull an
upset. “We have a good chance to
win round one,” Eskilsson said.
The Fightin’ Christians finished the
season at 16-8 overall and a perfect
7-0 in the SAC.
The women’s tennis team de
feated Gardner-Webb (7-0) and
Wingate (5-3) to reach the finals of
the tournament against Presbyte
rian. However, with the loss of first
singles player Jenny Thigpen be
cause of mononucleosis, the team
could not defeat top-ranked Pres
byterian.
Teammates Kara McLaughlin
Andrew Brickey/ The Pendulum
Adriano Blacutt was chosen as
“Freshman of the Year.”
and Sarah Collins both agree the
addition of Thigpen would have
had an extreme impact on the game.
“’ I think we could have beaten Pres
byterian if we had her,” Collins
said.”
“It really hurt us,” said
McLaughlin about the absence of
Thigpen.
The highlight of the match
against Presbyterian was the first
doubles play of Collins and Kristin
Fleming. The duo defeated a previ-
ously unbeaten Presbyterian
doubles team. “It felt like we won
Wimbleton,” Collins said.
This weekend the team will
play Pfeiffer in the first round and
the winner of Carson-Newman and
High Point. Thigpen is still unsure
if she will return to play for the
regional tournament.
However, Thigpen has not
gone unnoticed for her exceptional
effort this season. She was named
Freshman of the Year and All-Con
ference. “I’m satisfied with the way
things went (this season),” Thigpen
said. “I learned a lot from other
players on the team.”
Collins and Fleming also
earned All-Conference honors.
The Lady Christians are aim
ing to win the regional tournament
at Elon this weekend to compete in
the nationals in Missouri.“We
started off rocky this season,”
Collins said, “but at the end we
started to pull it together.”
The close-knit team will miss
the two graduating seniors,
McLaughlin and Alicia Otte.
Fleming will be back next year
since she has one year of eligibility
remaining. “It will be sad,”
McLaughlin said. “Kristin, Alicia
and I came in together. It was such
a good four years.”
Untimely Errors Cost Softball SAC Title
Troy Adams
Pendulum Reporter
This past weekend the Elon
softball team finished third in the
South Atlantic Conference tourna
ment, behind Carson-Newman and
Gardner-Webb.
The tournament was seen as a
disappointment to the players who
wanted a conference title in the last
year in Division II.
“It’s upsetting to leave Divi
sion II the way we left it,” shortstop
Kelly Lloyd said. “We know we’re
a better team than third in the tour
ney and second overall.”
Though the team did have high
expectations for the SAC title, the
Laldy Christians were not upset with
their season.
LEARN TO
SKYDIVE!
CAROLINA SKY SPORTS
(919) 496-2224
“I was pleased with the way
we played,” Lloyd said. “The record
doesn’t show how well we played,
who we played or how close the
games were.”
“We got over 30 wins, which
was one of our goals,” injured
catcher Melissa Sommers said.
“We wanted to win the conference
but that’s O.K. We’ll show every
body in Division I next year.”
In the first round of the tourna
ment, Elon lost 7-6 to No. 7 ranked
Mars Hill, whom the team defeated
twice in the season.
Elon trailed 7-0 in the top of
the seventh inning and scored six
runs with two outs, but then fell
short.
“We should have jumped on
them before the sixth
inning,”second baseman Heather
Dennis said. “It would have made
the tournament go by a lot smoother.
Getting out of the loser’s bracket is
almost impossible.”
“We thought it would be such
an easy game that we really didn’t
take them seriously,” said outfielder
Jen Warren. “If we would have
gone in thinking one game at a
time, that would have changed it.”
The loss put Elon in the loser’s
bracket, leaving them with a long
climb and eventually three games
to be played all on Saturday.
“That really hurt us,” catcher
Holly Briel said. “We had to come
back and win all those games on
Saturday. It put us in a bad posi
tion.”
The team was very successful
on Saturday though, defeating
Wingate 10-0, Lenoir-Rhyne 8-1
and Catawba 6-2.
On Saturday the team rallied
together to win convincingly over
Wingate.
“We were thinking if we lose
this game, we go home,” Dennis
said. “We weren’t ending our sea
son against Wingate.”
Elon then challenged Carson-
Newman in the loser’s bracket fi
nal. “I personally thought we were
going to walk over Carson-
Newman, but we had a tough first
inning and couldn’t get it back,”
said pitcher Gina Krueger.
The team made some untimely
errors that put them behind and led
to the 2-1 loss and their elimination
from the tournament.
However, one of the highlights
of the season was the selection of
Dana Wascak and Krueger to the
All-SAC First Team. Krueger was
also selected as Freshman of the
Year and Theresa Schifano was
selected as First Union Scholar
Athlete.
“Even though we didn’t win
the conference, we have so much
more talent than any of the other
teams,” Dennis said. “When that
talent comes through, we’ll be able
to hold our own with any Division
I team.” f
“I think we’ll be ready for Di
vision I,” pitcher Kristen Kendrick
said.