Fordham Women’s Tennis kicked off a busy weekend on Saturday when they traveled to Manhattan — of course, I’m referring to Manhattan, Kan., home of the Kansas State University Wildcats. Despite the deceiving name, it was one of the furthest road trips for the Rams in their program’s history. Unfortunately, the crew’s cross-country travel to the nation’s breadbasket left them unsatisfied, beginning with a 0-7 loss to the Wildcats.
The two teams’ first-ever match began with doubles, where the #2 and #3 pairs lost their sets 1-6; seniors Rose Hu and Eleni Fasoula were knotted 3-3 with their competition at #1, but the match was left unfinished after the Rams’ #2 and #3 matches went final.
Things weren’t much better in singles, where the Rams were unable to pick up a set against a tough Wildcats team that advanced to 6-2 with the non-conference win. Freshman Anlin Xie fought valiantly at #4 versus Maralgoo Chomsomjav, falling 4-6, in the most exciting action of the day.
Fordham looked to regain their footing, perhaps following the yellow brick road south to Wichita State University for a Sunday matinee matchup. The now 3-3 Rams squared off against the 5-4 Shockers — another first-ever matchup for Fordham — with the first serve coming at 10 a.m. In a highly competitive opening doubles series, the Shockers snatched the point from the Rams by winning at #1 and #3; graduate student Raffaela Alhach and Xie took #2 at 6-4. Alhach continued her winning ways in singles, earring the Rams a point at #1 with an exhilarating three-set victory over Natsumi Kurahashi. After Kurahashi took the first set, Alhach stormed back to win set two 7-6, narrowly winning the set’s tie-break by a score of 8-6. In the final set, Alhach was the first to reach the target score of 10, securing a hard-fought triumph.
By the time the back-and-forth match ended, three other singles matches concluded, all in favor of the Shockers. Xie lost a grueling first-set tiebreak in #3 singles and was unable to regain momentum, falling in two sets. The same can be said for star freshman Cindy Zhou, who lost in three sets at #2. By the time #6 singles wrapped up, the Shockers had amounted six points to the Rams’ one.
The Rams travel home 3-4, looking ahead to their home opener against George Washington University — a crucial conference contest in which Fordham will vie to advance to 3-0 against Atlantic 10 foes. It will be the first time Michael Sowter’s squad has played on its home Hawthorn/Rooney Courts since they hosted the Fordham Fall Classic in October. The match will take place on Saturday, March 2 at 4 p.m.; they’ll have two weeks to rest up and put together a more polished product for the onlooking Fordham faithful.
To leave on a positive note, it’s worth pointing out that the Rams opened the season 0-2, only to utilize a two-week break to their advantage, assembling a three-match win-streak — as the calendar flips to March, they’ll look to emulate their recent success in bouncing back from tough losses.
