After a year without playing a match or even practicing, Fordham Women’s Tennis kicked off their spring season on March 5 against the University of Connecticut, following up with a second match against Fairfield University. Fordham lost the match against UConn while beating Fairfield to start the season with a record of 1-1.

In the match against UConn, the Huskies started off with a win in doubles against freshman Eleni Fasoula and sophomore Rachelle Yang. However, Fordham bounced back in doubles with juniors Valeriya Deminova and Nicole Li winning to even the score. Then, senior Arina Taluyenko and junior Genevieve Quenville pushed UConn to the limit, but were unable to win their match, giving UConn the point for doubles. 

In singles play, Fasoula dropped a match, giving UConn a 2-0 lead, but Taluyenko gave Fordham its first point of the season with a win in her singles match. UConn then took a 3-1 lead when senior Maia Balce lost her singles match, but it quickly became 3-2 overall when Deminova won her singles match. UConn clinched the win by defeating Li in her singles match and Quenville closed out the day with a singles win, making the final score 4-3.

Fordham came out swinging for its second fixture against Fairfield. In doubles, Quenville and Deminova took a commanding lead before their opponents withdrew. Then the double pairing of Li and Taluyenko won their doubles match, giving Fordham the doubles point. Fordham then doubled their points lead when Quenville easily dispatched her opponent in straight sets. 

Fordham continued to show their talent with Taluyenko winning her singles match as well to make it a 3-0 lead. Deminova won her singles match, which clinched the victory for Fordham. Fairfield was able to win two matches and with Li winning her singles match it ended with a 5-2 victory for the Rams.

After the first two fixtures, the Rams are now 1-1 and their next fixtures are this upcoming weekend with Davidson College on Saturday, March 20 and St. Joseph’s University the following day. The Rams will be looking forward to these fixtures, hoping to carry the momentum from their win against Fairfield as they try and achieve a high seed to give them the best chance to win the Atlantic 10 Conference title later in the season.