PAC Release
TRAFFORD, Pa. -- For the third time in three years as members of the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC), the Allegheny College women's tennis team was voted No. 1 in the annual preseason coaches' poll.
The perennial favorites are looking to secure their second conference championship in the past three years. Since joining the PAC ahead of the 2022-23 academic year, the women's tennis team has yet to lose a regular-season match against a conference opponent, advanced to the tournament championship in back-to-back seasons, and won it all in the fall of 2022.
Allegheny, under the direction of fourth-year head coach
Dave Hayden, topped the nine-team preseason poll with 62 total points and six of nine possible first-place votes. Grove City College, the defending PAC champion, was second with 56 points and two first-place votes. Third-place Franciscan University received the final first-place vote and totaled 52 points.
Six Gators were highlighted by the PAC as Players to Watch for the upcoming 2024-25 campaign. All six are underclasswomen, including three first-year student-athletes in
Evie Ellenberger (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair),
Julia Müsseler (Munich, Germany/Käthe-Kollwitz-Gymnasium), and
Nicole Serna Cassan (Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico/Grandview Preparatory (Fla.)). The watch list also features sophomores
Omega Ba (Orlando, Fla./Edgewater),
Rei Etsumi (Honolulu, Hawaii/President William McKinley), and
Emiliia Grydnieva (Kyiv, Ukraine/Optima).
The Gators open the season at home on Saturday, August 31, and Sunday, August 1, with the two-day Allegheny Invitational on their home court at the Robertson Athletic Complex.
