This past weekend, Fordham Women’s Tennis traveled on Saturday and Sunday to play two away matches where they were able to pick up 5-2 wins in both contests. This marks four straight wins for the program, a strong turnaround since their wobbles in their first match against Drexel University.

They began by first competing against Army West Point in what proved to be a largely uncompetitive match due to Fordham’s outstanding doubles play. Usual duos consisting of graduate student Valeriya Deminova with senior Avery Aude and sophomore Lorraine Bergmann with freshman Sofie Siem dominated in their matches with convincing wins that would set the tone for their play against Siena College the next day.

In singles play, Army put up somewhat of a better fight, taking home two of the five completed singles matches. Army sophomore Jenna Sabile narrowly defeated junior Eleni Fasoula in three sets with scores of 6-2, 2-6 and 6-1. Army’s only other singles victory of the day would come courtesy of junior Caroline Ahn who gave Bergmann some trouble with her 6-4 and 6-0 wins. Army, whose team is significantly bigger and outnumbers Fordham by a total of 15-8 women, could not use the size of their roster to their advantage. Unlike Fordham, by using 12 different students in this match, they had none of their doubles matches consist of any of the same players from their singles matches. This strategy ultimately didn’t work and paved the way for the first victory of the weekend for the Rams.

The second match against Siena College on Sunday provided another opportunity for Fordham to show off their impressive doubles play as they again won both matches. The third match was not finished due to the first two already being won, but Deminova and Aude were also ahead 5-3 before play stopped. Both Saturday and Sunday proved to be monumental in establishing the team’s confidence through doubles matches. Much like Army, Sienna managed to win two singles matches, with the Rams taking four.

Both Fasoula and Bergmann again dropped the singles matches, contributing to the extreme parallels of the weekend between both events.
The Rams will certainly have a tough one next week when they travel to play the 6-1 Ivy leaguers in Brown University. However, this year’s roster is starting to shape up into something special, and continued success during a competitive stretch of the season could prove helpful in reflecting postseason play.

It should definitely be a compelling matchup and the team’s hardest of the year. Keeping up the positive play would allow Fordham to continue to be on its path towards one of the best regular seasons in recent memory.