Heading into Friday’s play, the Fordham women’s tennis team held three wins and six losses, and managed to come out of the weekend 4-7. The squad competed at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Drexel, and each match came down to sixth singles.

On Friday, this nail-biter did not work out in the Rams favor, as they lost to NJIT. The match started with a loss in doubles, as the sophomore combo of Nicole Li and Valeryia Deminova lost 6-1, while freshman Avery Aude and sophomore Genevieve Quenville won their first singles match 6-3. Junior Arina Taluyenko and freshman Weronica Pociej finished third doubles with a 6-4 win. 

In singles, Taluyenko could not secure the win in the first spot, and senior Maia Balce lost in the second spot. Deminova won third singles 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, and Aude came back to win her fifth singles. However, the losses by fourth and sixth singles sent the win to NJIT.

The next day, Li was luckier in her sixth spot and managed to send the win to Fordham to round out the weekend. The whole match came down to her. Li lost her first set 2-6, yet came back to get the win 7-5, 6-1.

Li had this to say about her performance: “There was a lot of pressure playing my singles match especially when starting the match knowing that our team’s win depends on my singles. I had to deal with lots of mental stress in the beginning because I was scared to lose and focusing too much on the consequences got me distracted, and soon I was down 2-6 2-5. Gladly my coaches were really supportive throughout the whole match. Even when I was one game away from losing, they didn’t lose hope in me and encouraged me to play fearlessly which led to the great come back.”

“Our team is looking forward for the following matches,” she continued. “We have been doing well in the past few weeks and we have been preparing for the A-10 so we are very excited.”

The squad will play Queen’s College this Friday, March 13 at 12 p.m. in Flushing, New York.