By TARA SLEDJESKI
STAFF WRITER
![Photo by Michael Hayes/The Ram Novacek won her singles match 6-3, 6-4 in Fordham’s match vs Quinnipiac.](https://69.195.124.217/~fordham7/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/tennis-color-michael-hayes.jpg?w=325)
After the Fordham Women’s Tennis team got off to a 2-4 start to their spring season, they picked things up by winning two matches on a spring break trip to Orlando, Fla. Before heading on the spring break trip to face Radford and Quinnipiac, however, the Rams first traveled to Columbia.
The Rams lost the match at Columbia against the 51st-ranked team in the nation on March 8. The final score of the match was 6-1, with the Rams getting their lone point in fourth singles. Anika Novacek got the win, beating Nada Zaher in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. The third doubles, fifth singles and sixth singles did not play well. Third doubles was skipped due to injury, while Columbia won fifth and sixth singles by default.
After the loss at Columbia, the Rams traveled down the east coast for two matches over spring break. The first match was set to be against Radford on March 12, but was rescheduled to March 13 due to poor weather. The delay did not hurt, however, since the Rams were able to pull out the win.
The Rams beat Radford 4-3 thanks to a strong doubles showing. They managed to get the point for doubles after all three doubles pairs won. They also got points from fourth, fifth and sixth singles thanks to Angelika Dabu, Novacek and Julie Leong.
The Rams’ faced Quinnipiac in their next match in Orlando on March 14. With the momentum from the win against Radford, which they also won. The Rams got most of their points from singles in this match after just one of their doubles teams won. Sarah Ali won her second singles match to get Fordham its first point. Dabu, Novacek and Leong also all won again in fourth, fifth and sixth singles.
In addition to the strong showing in Orlando, the Rams got some more good news this past week. In a season in which Fordham had more students named to the Atlantic 10 Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll than any other school in the conference, the Women’s Tennis team had five players named to it. Novacek along with Dabu, Hanna Fritzinger, Bella Genkina and Amy Simidian were named to the Atlantic 10 Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll.
The now 4-5 Rams are in action again on March 20 against Farleigh Dickenson in Hackensack, N.J. After that, they hit the road again to take on Villanova. Tht match is on March 23. The Rams are now quickly approaching their home opener, which will take place on March 24 against Temple.