{"id":868089,"date":"2026-08-25T17:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/868089\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T17:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:22:10","slug":"saint-francis-womens-tennis-prepares-for-first-season-in-the-pac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/868089\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint Francis Women&#8217;s Tennis Prepares for First Season in the PAC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Women&#8217;s Tennis | 8\/25\/2026 12:48:00 PM<\/p>\n<p>                    &#13;<br \/>\n                        Story Links&#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<\/p>\n<p>                     TRAFFORD, Pa. \u2013 Just months after capturing the program&#8217;s first conference championship, Saint Francis women&#8217;s tennis is getting ready to return to the court.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nAs Saint Francis prepares for its first season in the President&#8217;s Athletic Conference, the 2026-27 season will look a little different.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nPer league rules, the women&#8217;s team will play its conference schedule in the fall while the men complete in the spring.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nAs Saint Francis continues its transition to Division III, the Red Wolves cannot compete for a championship and its matches against PAC schools will not count in the conference standings.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nOn Tuesday, the PAC unveiled its women&#8217;s tennis preseason coaches&#8217; poll. After claiming their third title in four years, Allegheny College secured the top spot.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nLast year&#8217;s PAC runner-up Grove City placed second in the balloting. Saint Francis head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/sfuathletics.com\/sports\/womens-tennis\/roster\/coaches\/eric-hovan\/1755\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"1755\" target=\"_blank\">Eric Hovan<\/a> can look at those schools as the benchmark as he prepares his team for the upcoming season.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nHovan returns five players from that NEC Championship team. Several of them were named to the league&#8217;s Players to Watch List.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/sfuathletics.com\/sports\/womens-tennis\/roster\/sophia-cunningham\/12504\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"12504\" target=\"_blank\">Sophia Cunningham<\/a> | Jr. | Pittsburgh, Pa.<br \/>\nAt one point, Cunningham was ranked by the ITA and recognized as the 81st best doubles duo. She finished the 2025-26 season with a 13-9 doubles record. She was 7-4 singles.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/sfuathletics.com\/sports\/womens-tennis\/roster\/helena-lynn\/12505\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"12505\" target=\"_blank\">Helena Lynn<\/a> | So. | Bethlehem, Pa.<br \/>\nLynn had a great freshmen campaign setting a program record with 28 wins. She won the match that clinched a 4-0 win over FDU in the NEC Championships. Lynn was a six-time NEC Rookie of the Week winner.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/sfuathletics.com\/sports\/womens-tennis\/roster\/reagen-mangan\/12506\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"12506\" target=\"_blank\">Reagen Mangan<\/a> | Sr. | Goshen, N.Y.<br \/>\nMangan&#8217;s leadership and competitiveness will be valuable for Saint Francis. During the NEC Tournament she earned two singles victories and won all three doubles matches to help clinch the conference championship.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/sfuathletics.com\/sports\/womens-tennis\/roster\/morgan-tuffs\/12508\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"12508\" target=\"_blank\">Morgan Tuffs<\/a> | Jr. | Calgary, Alberta<br \/>\nTuffs went 14-13 in singles play with a 9-5 mark at No. 6 singles last year. Tuffs also excelled in the classroom. She joined Mangan in earning College Sports Communicators All-District Honors.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nSaint Francis kicks\u00a0off the year Sept. 5th when the Red Wolves play at the IUP Invitational.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t2026 PAC Women&#8217;s Tennis Preseason Coaches&#8217; Poll (Predicted order of finish)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\tSchool (first-place votes)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\tPoints&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t2025-26 record (conference)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t1. Allegheny College (9)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t73&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t16-7 (8-0 PAC)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t2. Grove City College (1)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t65&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t13-4 (7-1 PAC)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t3.\u00a0Franciscan University\u00a0&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t52&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t10-8 (6-2 PAC)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t4. Washington &amp; Jefferson College&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t49&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t14-6 (5-3 PAC)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t5. Geneva College&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t40&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t7-8 (4-4 PAC)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t6. Saint Vincent\u00a0College&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t33&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t12-13 (3-5 PAC)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t7. Westminster College&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t31&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t3-9 (2-6 PAC)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t8. Waynesburg University&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t17&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t8-9 (1-7 PAC)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t9. Thiel College&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t9&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t0-14 (0-8 PAC)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\tSaint Francis University&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#8212;&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t16-9 (6-1 NEC)&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women&#8217;s Tennis | 8\/25\/2026 12:48:00 PM &#13; Story Links&#13; &#13; TRAFFORD, Pa. \u2013 Just months after capturing the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-868089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}