Over the weekend, Fordham’s women’s tennis team began play at the Army West Point Invitational. This is the first match since the Rams lost in the Atlantic 10 championship in the 2021-22 season and the first time they competed in this event since 2018. As the new season commenced, the experienced graduate students shined and performed the strongest. The team is comprised of eight women, allowing each to have the opportunity in this tournament to compete against athletes from other colleges across New York and beyond.

The format of this invitational included five different flights, with singles matches taking place in a winner moves on, double elimination, bracket-style process. Fordham had players participating in A-D Flights in the singles matches. Fordham had multiple different wins in this tournament, notable ones including graduate student Lindsay Hung winning in the consolation finals match in A Flight 8-6 against a Lize-Alet Morkel of Fairfield University. This was a big victory and is a promising sign for continued wins, with Hung being a key player as the season begins to unfold. Unfortunately, the other players in A Flight did not find as much success today, as junior Avery Aude and senior Valeriya Deminova lost their first two matches in tough competitions.

The other graduate student on the team, Carlota Casasampere Escoda, also performed well in B Flight with victories against opponents from Syracuse University, Sacred Heart University and the University of Massachusetts. She reached the semifinals, making her one of the highest performing players on the team. This fell just short of the highest performing player in 2018’s West Point Invitational when former Ram Arina Taluyenko advanced to the finals. Another strong performance came from sophomore Eleni Fasoula, who had three wins in the B Flight consolation bracket. 

Freshman Sofie Siem and sophomore Lorraine Bergmann saw action when they competed in C Flight against Cornell University and Fairfield University opponents. Siem was eliminated in the first round, while Bergmann defeated her first opponent before losing in the round of 16 to Julia Kelly of Army. Lastly, D Flight consisted of junior Rachelle Yang, who was injured in her second match. The severity of the injury and her status for next week’s matches is unknown.. 

Overall, Fordham finished with some solid victories but struggled in the first round, with players going 2-6 overall in their respective first-round matches. This led to much of the tournament 

for Fordham being played in the consolation bracket. However, a stronger start could benefit the Rams greatly as they look to get over the first hump. This weekend, they will have another chance to show their skills at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Regional Championships in New Jersey.