This past Saturday, the women’s tennis team traveled to West Point to compete against St. Bonaventure University in their third contest of the new year. This did not turn out to be much of a competition, as Fordham efficiently took care of business winning five of six singles matches and two of three in the doubles.

Much like the week prior, there was not just one key performance, as almost the entire team found success. Only graduate student Lindsay Hung dropped both her singles and doubles matches on the day. In recent weeks, both junior Eleni Fasoula and sophomore Lorraine Bergmann have no doubt been on a tear lately, as they have won all three of their singles matches on the year. Their hot streak looks to continue as the Rams pick up more experience and wins as we get deeper into the season.

The match’s sets were largely uncompetitive, with four of the six singles matches going to only two sets. This can help measure dominance, and although St. Bonaventure has struggled in recent years, it was still extremely necessary to pick up this win as the team moved into the harder part of their schedule. Coach Michael Sowter reaffirmed this sentiment, explaining after the game, “It’s always beneficial to get a win over an A-10 conference opponent and good preparation for a couple of tough opponents next week!” 

The tough opponents that Sowter is referring to consist of multiple Ivy League universities including Brown, Columbia and Yale. These programs, especially Columbia and Yale, have been tough teams for not only the Rams but for all opponents in recent years, as these two have both finished with above .500 records over the last two seasons. Fordham looks to correct previous shortcomings, as they dropped the match against Brown 1-6 last season and lost in their last event against Yale in 2019 by a score of 0-7. As the current 2023 team is chock-full of veteran contributors, many of these current players have competed against these teams before, and hopefully can use this prior experience to help improve on past mistakes. 

This win marks the first back-to-back wins for the Rams this year with their eyes set on another next Saturday morning against the Army West Point Black Knights. They will be traveling just about an hour upstate from the Bronx for the second time in two weeks where they hope to avenge their last performance against Army in 2021 where Fordham was easily handled by a score of 1-6. However, this is a new year with a different team, and anything can happen in what would be a huge victory for the team’s hopes going forward.