FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
S-31-03-04
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Three Elizabethtown Women's Tennis Players Named to All-Conference Teams, Etown Coach Matt Helsel Named Conference Co-Coach of the Year, Stacy Shapiro Named Conference Rookie of the Year

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Three Elizabethtown College women's tennis players have been named to the All-Commonwealth Conference teams, including first-year Stacy Shapiro (Audubon, PA/Methacton), who made the first team, and juniors Lisa Abel (Downingtown, PA/Downingtown) and Mel Parenteau (Marydel, MD/North Caroline), who were both named to the second team. Also, Shapiro was named the conference's Rookie of the Year, and Etown head coach Matt Helsel was named the conference's Co-Coach of the Year.

Shapiro had a precocious start to her collegiate career for the Blue Jays in 2003, immediately stepping into the number one singles slot and compiling a 6-6 mark in singles while mostly facing far more established competitors. She also went 5-8 this year in doubles while playing exclusively in the number one slot there as well.

Abel leap-frogged from number four singles, where she played last year, to number two singles at the start of 2003. There, she went 5-7 in 2003 to boost her career singles record through three seasons to 19-17. In doubles matches in 2003, she went 4-9 while playing everywhere from number one to number three. She has 12 career doubles victories thus far.

Parenteau, Etown's exclusive number three singles player for the past two years, had a breakthrough campaign in 2003, compiling a 9-3 mark in singles play and going 9-4 in doubles matches while splitting time between number one and number two. Along the way, she was named the Commonwealth Conference Player of the Week for the first time in her career this season. Her career record in singles currently stands at 25-11, and she is 23-18 through three years in doubles.

The Elizabethtown College women's tennis team ran up a 9-4 overall record, its best since 1996, this year, and the Blue Jays went 5-2 in the Commonwealth Conference and finished third out of eight teams after remaining in the playoff race through the final match of the season. The team, which has no seniors and only two juniors on its roster, surprised many in the conference with its competitiveness after going 6-8 overall last year.

While the Blue Jays' dual match season is finished, the Etown players will compete this Saturday and Sunday at Drew University in the Middle Atlantic Conference Individual Singles and Doubles Championships.