By Charlie Maisano
The Fordham women’s tennis team had high expectations heading into the 2017-2018 season. After nine games this season, the Rams have already lost more games than they did all of last year.
In a week that only had one game scheduled, the Rams headed to Philadelphia on Friday to face the Temple Owls. Both teams entered the contest with a .500 record, as the Owls were 4-4, 2-1 in the AAC, while the Rams were also 4-4, 1-0 in the A-10.
They may both have had .500 records, but the momentum for each team was on two different trajectories. The Owls started off the season 1-4, but had since won three straight games. As for the Rams, they started the season 3-0 before losing three straight and subsequently splitting decisions between two games last week.
Not only did Temple have the momentum advantage prior to the game, but they also had the edge in personnel as well. Junior Carina Ma, who is the Ram’s number one singles and doubles competitor, did not play in the game on Friday for an undisclosed reason. Junior Tatiana Grigoryan replaced Carina in both her spots in the lineup.
Without Ma in the lineup, the Rams struggled to pick up victories in the singles competition. Out of the six singles matches, Fordham was only able to win one match. Senior Estelle Wong defeated sophomore Kristina Titova in two sets, 6-0, 7-5. In place of Ma, Grigoryan fell in first singles to senior Alina Abdurakhimova in two sets, 5-7, 1-6. Two other Rams also lost in two sets. Senior Carolina Sa lost her match to junior Alice Patch 5-7, 0-6, and Temple sophomore Cecilia Castelli cruised past junior Whitney Weisberg 6-2, 6-0.
The two remaining women for Fordham fought extra hard in their losses. Sophomore Maia Balce and junior Gianna Insogna both battled for three sets with their opponents but were unable to pull out a victory. In fourth singles, Balce lost to senior Yana Khon 6-4, 6-7, 8-10, while in fifth singles Insogna was defeated by freshman Oyku Boz, 7-6, 6-7, 8-10.
Despite being shorthanded in the singles competition, head coach Bette-Ann Liguori was proud of her team for fighting back even though the odds weren’t in their favor.
“The team’s effort was tremendous, despite not having Carina in the line-up. […] Gianna and Maia had split sets before the match was decided, and if they had the opportunity to play out a third set, I believe they would have won their matches. Tatiana fought hard against a stronger player, but Estelle was flawless in her singles match. She really picked up her game to another level to beat that player in straight sets,” said Liguori.
In doubles, the Rams also only got one victory out of three matches and dropped the doubles point. The lone victory came from Grigoryan and Wong. They outlasted Abdurakhimova and Rimpledeep Kaur in one set, 7-6.
Liguori thought, “Tatiana and Estelle were truly awesome in first doubles, and really got to show how talented they are despite the fact that they never played together before.”
In the other doubles matches, both teams could not make it out of the first set. Patch and Khon swept Sa and Weisburg 6-0, while Boz and Titova easily handled Balce and Insogna 6-2.
When it was all said and done, the Owls defeated the Rams 6-1 and extended their win streak to four games. The Rams record is now below .500 for the first time all season.
Up next, the Fordham Rams will try and get back to .500 against the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights on Sunday, March 18th. Last season, Fordham beat Fairleigh Dickinson 6-1 at home, which according to Liguori, should also happen again this time around.
“FDU is down to only five, possibly four players, so we are starting the match with a solid advantage. However, our match will be outdoors ,and we are still playing indoors, which gives FDU an advantage because they are in Orlando playing right now. So, we just need to practice well this week and we should beat them.”
