By Alvin Halimwidjaya
On Jan. 25, Fordham Women’s Tennis traveled to the Legacy Center in Philadelphia to face Drexel University. The Rams were coming off the NJIT Invitational, where they won five matches and lost two. However, they fell to Drexel 6-1, starting their spring season off with a loss. This was their second team-scoring match of the academic year, as they had played Seton Hall at home in the fall and won 6-1.
Freshman Maia Balce gave the Rams their single victory. She bounced back from her singles loss at the NJIT Invitational and defeated Ghita Benhadi 5-7, 6-3, 10-4. The rest of the team did not fare as well. Fordham dropped the rest of their singles matches. Sophomore Carina Ma lost to Honami Yazawa 6-2, 6-1, while junior Estelle Wong dropped her match against Kendra Bunch 7-5, 5-7, 11-9. Senior Mayu Sato lost to Lea Winkler 7-6 (5), 6-4, and sophomore Gianna Insogna fell to Clary Rodriguez Cruz 6-2, 6-2. Finally, senior Destiny Grunin fell to Anisiya Simpson 6-4, 6-2.
“The three singles matches I played in NJIT [winning two and losing one] really helped me a lot with my singles match against Drexel,” said Balce. “It helped me get my rhythm back because I haven’t played matches in a long time. The loss against NJIT helped me realize the things that I needed to work on in my game to be able to play better in the coming matches, and my coaches also really helped me.”
Fordham did not fare any better in the doubles matches, regressing from two wins in three matches in the NJIT Invitational.
The Fordham duo of Ma and Wong fell to the Drexel tandem of Ryshena Providence and Clary Rodriguez 6-3. Balce and Insogna lost to Ghita Benhadi & Kendra Bunch 6-2, while the pair of Sato and Grunin dropped their match against Lea Winkler and Honami Yazawa defeated Mayu Sato and Destiny Grunin 6-3.
“One of our key doubles, [sophomore Alexis] Zobeideh, has pneumonia so we had to substitute a player the morning of the match,” said head coach Bette-Ann Liguori. Grunin ended up replacing Zobeideh in doubles play.
Coming off a three-month hiatus, the Rams were still shaking off the cobwebs, and it showed in their play against Drexel.
“[Our team is] certainly rusty from the break and we only had 6 days of practice before this match,” Liguori said. “Drexel, on the other hand, started practicing a week before us and I feel that made the difference. On paper we were equal going into the match, so Drexel having a week’s worth of practice and two dual matches, made a huge difference.”
“Most of us didn’t really practice over the break, and the last time we played an actual match was last October against Seton Hall,” said Balce. “The team is dealing with this through playing a lot of challenge matches with each other and trying getting our rhythm back, [as well as] through our coaches guiding us during practice and just motivating each other to play better each day.”
The Rams return to action on Friday, Feb. 10, as they travel to Piscataway, N.J. to face Rutgers at 12:00 p.m.
