Eric Fritzges will serve as an assistant coach to Michael Anderson with the men's and women's tennis teams in 2017-18.
Fritzges planned to hold the same support role last season before circumstances resulted in him being named interim head coach of both programs.
Though the programs went through a whirlwind of change in the months prior to his return, Fritzges steadied the Blue Jays through their spring seasons. The women's team successfully defended its Landmark championship for a third straight season and the men's team showed a two-win improvement over the 2015-16 season.
Coming off back-to-back Landmark titles under former head coach Matt Helsel, which were also preceded by five consecutive MAC Commonwealth championships, lofty expectations were again placed on the Blue Jay women when they were picked as the favorite in the Landmark's Preseason Poll.
The women's team rebounded from its slow start to the spring by going on an 11-match winning streak from March 26-May 7 that culminated with a 5-0 sweep of Scranton in the Landmark Championship. Elizabethtown received its eighth-straight automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Championships and were sent to Middlebury, Vt., for the second year in a row. Nationally-ranked No. 20 Skidmore defeated the Blue Jays, 5-0, in a First Round match. E-town ended the season with a 13-5 record (12-5 under Fritzges).
Elizabethtown claimed its share of year-end awards with senior Taylor Helsel named All-Landmark First Team Singles and Doubles, and fellow senior Madison McCall earning First Team Doubles and Second Team Singles spots along with the Landmark's Senior Scholar Athlete Award.
The Blue Jay men also got stronger as the spring progressed, capturing wins in five of their final seven matches to finish 7-9 overall and 3-4 in the Landmark.
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Fritzges played for the Blue Jays from 2009-13, earning All-MAC Commonwealth Conference honors each of his last three seasons. He returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach in 2013-14 under Helsel and was an assistant to Lesko in the fall of 2016.
A native of Trucksville, Pennsylvania, Fritzges registered 114 career combined victories during his collegiate playing career. He won double-digit singles and doubles matches all four years and was part of MAC Commonwealth Conference championship and NCAA Division III tournament qualifying teams in 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13.
Fritzges finished with career records of 55-33 in singles, 59-34 in doubles and 114-67 combined. He ranks tied for third in career doubles victories at Elizabethtown and fourth in singles wins. Fritzges also holds fourth on the program's single-season doubles wins list with 19 in 2011-12 and fourth on its single-season combined wins list with 35 that same season.
Fritzges earned his B.S. in Health and Occupation from Elizabethtown in 2013 and received his M.S in Occupational Therapy from the College in 2014. He is married to the former Kristi Noecker, a three-time all-conference player for the Blue Jay women's tennis team from 2009-13.
Updated 9/14/17
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