Fordham Women’s Tennis returns on the heels of its most dominant year in program history — but with unfinished business to tend to.
In 2025, Fordham earned the top seed in the conference championship for the first time ever, but fell in the semifinals amid its quest for the team’s second-ever Atlantic 10 (A-10) title. But according to junior returner Aya Matsunaga, the group hasn’t skipped a beat.
“I think we have an even stronger team this year,” said Matsunaga, who’s among seven returning student-athletes on the team’s nine-woman roster.
Leading the charge is senior Nevena Kolarevic, a Serbian native in her second year at Fordham. Kolarevic’s resume leaves little room to add new accomplishments, but the reigning A-10 Most Outstanding Performer has done nothing but pile onto her historic career in the 2025-26 season.
This fall, Kolarevic became the first Ram to win the singles title at the A-10 Masters. Then she teamed with fellow reigning All-A-10 first-teamer, junior Julianne Nguyen, to win the ITA Northeast Regional Tournament — another feat never-before-accomplished by the Maroon. The tandem earned Fordham’s first-ever bid to the NCAA Doubles Championship, where they competed in Orlando, Florida, in November.
While the team’s top duo will lead the charge as co-captains, this year’s roster is as deep as it is talented.
“[Kolarevic and Nguyen] were telling us, like, we’re not even that different to them. We’re not practicing that different from them,” said Matsunaga.
Look no further than the #3 doubles spot. Sophomores Paola Dalmonico and Catalina Padilla — the latter a reigning All-A-10 Second Teamer — went 12-1 together last year and return to the Bronx to reprise their role for year two.
Also returning is senior Sofie Siem, the lone Ram playing her fourth season at Fordham, and junior Lily Chitambar, coming off a 16-8 year in singles.
Joining the team are freshmen Isabella Aguiar, a four-star recruit from Florida, and Valerija Kargina, ranked #250 among all the junior players by the International Tennis Federation.
As they’ve done consistently under fifth-year head coach Mike Sowter, the Rams will endure a tough non-conference schedule to prepare themselves for the A-10 slate. What about this year’s first four matches? A win against a Drexel University team that beat them in their 2023 A-10 title season, and three losses to teams ranked in the top 100 nationally last year, per UTR.
The Rams rode high on momentum from a doubles point win to capture five of six contests at singles in a 6-1 win to open the season two weeks ago against Drexel. Fordham traveled north to Syracuse University two days later, with Matsunaga’s three-set win at #5 singles earning the team its lone point. The Orange swept Fordham last year.
For this weekend’s matches against Boston College and Dartmouth College, the impending blizzard caused a severe change of plans. Instead of playing across two days, Fordham competed in back-to-back matches on Saturday off insufficient sleep from travel the night prior.
“We never expected that to happen,” said Matsunaga. “It was kind of crazy to play two really solid schools in one day.”
The Rams lost each match, 4-1, with points won from Matsunaga (#5 Singles vs BC: 3-6, 6-4, 6-3) and Padilla (#6 Singles vs Dartmouth: 6-2, 6-2).
Despite the chaos, Sowter kept the team steady.
“If it’s cold or hot, you can’t change that,” said Matsunaga. “But [Sowter] always says effort and attitude, you can always change. That was the key for this weekend.”
Matsunaga has enjoyed the hottest start to the new season. Carrying a 3-0 singles record, the Japan native credits her team for her success.
“Everyone’s screaming and saying, ‘come on’ and it just gives me so much energy and it just gives me so much joy to be competing,” said Matsunaga.
While the team’s overall scorecards haven’t stuck out, history indicates that the 1-3 Rams will be just fine.
The tough early stretch tends to pay dividends, with the team going 8-0 in A-10 play last season despite four non-conference losses. The Rams will enjoy their most home-heavy season in years, too, finishing the campaign with six consecutive matches on their native Hawthorn/Rooney Tennis Courts.
Before then, Fordham will continue its Ivy League tilt, traveling to New Jersey to play Princeton University this Saturday at 1 p.m. The Rams then head east to Connecticut for a 12 p.m. showing Sunday against Yale University, seeking to secure their first win over an Ivy League team since online stat-tracking began in 2006.
