Women's Tennis Sits Third in Preseason Poll

TOWSON, Md. - In the Landmark Conference Women's Tennis Preason Poll, the conference coaches ranked Juniata third for the 2017 season.

"Elizabethtown is favored by the Landmark coaches to come out on top again during the upcoming 2017 season," said Landmark. The Blue Jays received six first place votes and 65 points overall to sit at first in the poll. Scranton follows in second with 56 points. Juniata landed in third, receiving 39 points with one first place vote. Catholic is only one point behind in fourth place. Moravian, Drew, Susquehanna and Goucher round out the 2017 poll, respectively.

Juniata finished 5-2 in conference play with an undefeated home record last season. For the 2017 season, the Eagles have seven women returning, including the Rookie and Player of the Year Lauren Lucas (Holidaysburg, Pa./Altoona Area). Lucas and Rachel Yurchisin (Cleveland, Ohio/Padua Francsiscan) will lead the lineup, as both Lucas and Yurchisin earned a spot in last year's Landmark tournament.

In its first game under first-year head coach Sam Varner, Juniata defeated Albright 7-2 on Saturday, Sept. 24. The Eagles went undefeated in doubles play in the match, while Vienna Cordier (Medford, N.J./Shawnee), Savannah Bailey (Rockville, Md./Richard Montgomery), Souyma Polavarapu (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater Raritan) and Devin Ryman (Kingston, Pa./Wyoming Valley West) came out on top in singles play.

The Eagles' first match of the spring season is pegged for Tuesday, March 14 at Penn State Harrisburg. Conference play is set to begin on Saturday, April 1 at Catholic.

For more on the Landmark Conference's Women's Tennis Preseason Poll, click here.