FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
S-028-07-08
Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Three Elizabethtown Players Named All-Commonwealth Conference; Emily Swarr Selected Player of the Year and Matt Helsel Repeats as Coach of the Year

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Three Elizabethtown College women's tennis players have been named All-Commonwealth Conference as voted upon by the league's head coaches and released Wednesday.

Sophomore Emily Swarr (Manheim, PA/Manheim Central) was named Player of the Year and selected to the first team along with senior Emma Smith (Moorestown, NJ/Moorestown), while junior Alice Yu (Athens, GA/Clarke Central) was a second-team selection.

In addition, head coach Matt Helsel was named Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season and the third time in his career after guiding the Blue Jays to a perfect 4-0 record in conference play and the top seed in next spring's team tournament.

Swarr, who was conference Rookie of the Year last season, compiled a 5-2 record in singles during the fall portion of the season and went 4-0 at first singles in conference play. She lost just one set in four league matches and increased her two-year singles record to 20-10.

Smith, who was a second-team All-Conference selection as a freshman and a sophomore, fashioned a 3-4 overall record and went 3-1 at second singles in conference matches, boosting her career win total in singles to 32.

Yu is a first-time All-Conference pick after dominating at third singles during conference play, compiling a perfect 4-0 record and losing a total of one game in eight sets. In her career, Yu has 40 singles victories to rank sixth on the school's all-time wins list.

Helsel was the Commonwealth Conference Coach of the Year for women's tennis in 2004 and 2006, and also earned Coach of the Year honors in men's tennis in 2005. He holds a 64-20 record in six seasons as head coach and has had nine different players earn All-Conference honors a total of 16 times during his tenure with the Blue Jays.