By Michael Sapunor
After a strong and smooth victory over Seton Hall on the Rams’ own Bronx tennis courts, the women’s tennis team sent representatives Estelle Wong and Mayu Sato to compete at the ITA Regionals in New Haven, Conn. last Thursday. It was a cool 62 degrees at the Yale-sponsored tournament, which continued until Oct. 25.
The women played one round as a doubles team, unfortunately losing in the single elimination doubles tournament to Rutgers’ Chloe Lee and Mingxiu Du after a respectable battle, 8-5. Lee and Du moved up the bracket to fall to Faybyshev and Rodriguez of Boston University, 8-7 (2). Following this, they began their respective singles tournaments. Senior Sato found herself in a tough situation, falling to Seton Hall’s Anna Fajnorova, 6-1, 6-3. Fajnorova had previously proven herself a tough opponent for the Rams, as she and teammate Luize Strike had emerged from their battle against Wong and Sato last week victorious, 8-5. Fajnarova fell in the next round to Rutgers’ Jacqueline Cochrane. Junior Estelle Wong fared a bit better in her singles play, beating out Fairleigh Dickinson’s Shreya Pasricha. She began their competition with a smooth 6-2 victory before a closer 7-6 (4) win to advance. Moving up the bracket, she encountered Columbia’s Star Makarome 6-0, 6-3 in an uphill battle. After their encounter, Makarome lost to fifth seed Dayna Lord of Brown, 6-2, 6-4. As of press time, fourteen matches remain to decide the winner of the tournament.
While the leaves turn brown and folk music plays from iPhones everywhere, the Rams put their season on hold until late January, when they compete at New Jersey Institute of Technology’s NJIT Winter Invite, in Newark, New Jersey. It will be interesting to see how the team’s playing changes between now and then.
