SCRANTON, Pa. — Lily Nowak has held a tennis racket in her hand most of her life.
Nowak, a University of Scranton grad student and Luzerne County native now holds something else along with her racket: a new university and conference record.
After beating Wilkes University on Tuesday, Nowak broke the U's program and Landmark Conference career doubles wins record with the 54th win of her career. But that's not all. Last month, she also broke the program's career singles wins record.
"It feels good to be able to have this many wins. Singles and doubles over 100 all together. It really is. I'm just really lucky to be able to accomplish this," Nowak said.
Nowak's number of wins are impressive, considering her collegiate tennis career was a bit shorter than normal.
"I missed my freshman and a little bit of my sophomore year due to COVID, so thankfully I was granted this last year to play," Nowak said.
Nowak says she shares this record with her team, especially her doubles partners, Daniella Wisniewski and most recently, Wilkes-Barre native and freshman Gisele Falzone.
"We've really come together the past two weeks and we've been playing together as the number one doubles flight. I really think our teamwork and our communication with one another has really led us to get these last couple of wins," said Nowak.
While this may be her last year playing competitive tennis, Nowak is proud of her accomplishments representing the University of Scranton.
"The Landmark Conference slogan is 'Make Your Mark' so I really feel that I've been able to make my mark here at the University of Scranton and then also within the conference as well, which I didn't even dream of doing," Nowak said.