Continuing to build and grow on the court, the women’s tennis team encountered a powerhouse of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference in Westminster to open the 2019 conference slate. The Titans overpowered the Yellow Jackets, however, cruising to a 9-0 win Thursday afternoon in New Wilmington   

Heading into the match, the Titans [5-0, 1-0] only allowed four individual victories to any opponents and that success continued with the Jackets [0-2, 0-1]. Head coach Ron Headlee said Westminster’s experience was one of the hardest parts of playing them.

“They didn’t lose anybody last year, so we knew it was going to be a tough task” Headlee said. “We won six games [against Westminster} last year and this year we won 15 so we are getting better in that phase of it.”

All six women who traveled played in singles: seniors Noelle Hughes, Sierra Stevens and Lauren Wadsworth as well as sophomore Kyleigh Schmidt, and two freshmen in Madison Trent and Haley Sweeney.

“I thought in the five and six [Sierra] Stevens played well,” Headlee said. ”She lost but was in the match. “Then, [Hayley] Sweeney, who’s a freshman played well in the sixth singles. They were in the matches, 

 Stevens had a 3-2 lead in the first set of her match against Sabrina Slagle, but ended up faltering, 6-3 6-1

In doubles competition, the same six participated but the pairs were Schmidt and Trent, Hughes and Wadsworth as well as Stevens and Sweeney. For Headlee, the Jackets fell into deuce often and committed a few mistakes in both singles and doubles, but more so in the doubles which he believes contributed to three doubles losses for the Jackets.

 “We’re in deuce a lot of points and we couldn’t pull out,” Headlee said. “[Some] little mistakes we’re making, double fault at the wrong time or just couldn’t make the play. They’re there, it’s just tough playing Westminster in just our second match of the year. Now we know what we can work on and I think we’ll be alright moving ahead.”

Next,  the Jackets will play a mix of non-conference and PAC opponents. Before the PAC schedule gets into full swing, Headlee said the mixture, which starts with Waynesburg’s next match against Thiel, will be good for the Jackets.

“Thiel, we lost to last year, 5-4,” Headlee said. “So, we think that’s going to be a good match and we hope we can change that around. Then, coming into [next] weekend we can win those two matches [against Mount Aloysius and Muskingum]. We played a couple really good teams, but now we have a good mix where we can stay in all these matches and have a good shot at winning.”

Waynesburg will hit the road again at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17 traveling to Greeneville, PA to take on the Thiel Tomcats before starting its home schedule Sept. 20.