After rain washed out its opening match against Easton, the Emmaus tennis team had to wait a few extra days to get the season under way. But now that things have started, the Hornets are on a roll.

They've opened the season with three conference wins, including one over Northampton, which not only beat Emmaus in the regular season last year, but knocked the Lady Hornets out of the District 11 Tournament.

Emmaus has started its season with wins over Liberty (6-1), Freedom (5-2) and Northampton (6-1). Doubles, which was a question mark coming into the season, has gotten off to a strong start with their only loss coming against Northampton where they lost the third doubles match by default.

The doubles teams of Katrina Guido and Elise VanOrmer and Caroline Smith and Anna Thoet have yet to lose a set this season. Amy Yang and Michelle Gunn have opened the season with three straight wins and Katie Xue and Julia Pan are off to a 2-0 start.

In singles, seniors Victoria Chan is a perfect 3-0 to open the season and Cat Garrity is off to a 2-1 start. Another senior, Kelly Nguyen dropped her first two matches of the season, but rebounded with an impressive win over Northampton's number one singles player Leah Hodge.

With the team having big expectations for this season, Garrity said they were glad to finally get on the court to open their season after their opening match rainout.

"Yeah, we were pretty anxious," said Garrity after picking up a 6-1, 6-1 singles win over Liberty's Madelyn Conrad. "It was supposed to rain again today, so we were pretty bummed, but it turned out great and we're all excited to be out here."

As a senior, there is plenty for Garrity to be excited about. She has been a part of losing teams early in her high school career and was a big part of the team's turnaround last season when it went 11-5 and qualified for districts. This season, things could be even bigger and better for Garrity and her teammates.

"I'm proud of what I accomplished," said Garrity. "I moved up a whole spot. I was third singles last year and now I'm playing second singles and I'm happy with that. I'm looking to have a good season and hopefully the team will do well."

The team should do well and can look to be even better than its 11-5 record from last season. The Hornets 3-0 start is equaled only by Nazareth and Parkland in the Lehigh Valley Conference and they've got a strong upper class contingent to go along with some new faces.

"I think we're going to do awesome," said Garrity. "Last year we went 11-5 and the year before that we had a losing record. This year, I think we'll be even better; we have new freshmen in and a great team and a lot of us have been practicing over the summer and look great."

Coach Kelly Musselman agrees with Garrity's assessment of the team and believes that Garrity is also poised to not only be a team leader, but also put together a strong season for herself.

"Catherine has worked very hard during the offseason and it has paid off tremendously," said Musselman. "She is a strong and smart player who will be a tough match for anyone who plays her. She is a great teammate as well, always encouraging the other ladies to give 100 percent."

Right now, Garrity's plan is to major in Speech Communication at West Chester next Fall. She also plans on continuing to play tennis in college and has decided to drop her other love, basketball, to focus on tennis in her senior season.

"It was a tough decision," she said. "But I decided to focus on tennis because I want to play in college. So I'm just going to focus on that this year."

Emmaus' schedule this week has a trip to Whitehall on the agenda for Friday before a meeting with rival Parkland next Tuesday at home.