STAFF WRITER

The Fordham women’s tennis team ended its fall season last weekend, where two members of the squad competed at the ITA Regional Tournament in Cambridge, Mass. from Oct. 17 to Oct. 22.

Juniors Sarah Ali and Elliesa Ball represented the Rams in both the singles and doubles tournament, putting their hard work from the summer and fall on display.

Play started in the doubles tournament, where the pair first defeated St. John’s Diamond Admas and Nastya Polyakova 8-7 (5). From there, they followed up with one of four seeded upsets, beating 14th-seeded Yuliana Motyl and Aarzzo Malik of UMass, 8-3, to advance to the round of 16.

In the round of 16, however, the duo’s run came to an end with a loss to sixth seed Boston University’s Leonie-Charlotte Athanasiadis and Johanna Hyoty. In a close matchup, the Rams dropped the match by a score of 8-7 (3).

“There was a lot of great competition in the tournament, and we performed well and got pretty far in the tournament even though we fell in a very tight match in the round of 16,” Ali said in an email. “I am proud [of] our performance.”

In the qualifying draw for the singles tournament, Ali fell to Iris Lin of Boston University, 6-4, 6-3.

In her round of singles, Ball won a pair of matches. She first defeated St. Bonaventure’s Fatya Amari 6-1, 6-2 and then Fairleigh Dickinson’s Ksenija Tihomirova 6-2, 6-0 to advance to the round of 32. In her next match, however, Ball lost to Yale’s Annie Sullivan 6-3, 6-1.

“I had a really good time at regionals and, for the most part, was pleased with my performance in the singles,” Ball said in an email.

Both Ball and Ali displayed incredible strength and perseverance at Regionals and throughout the season as a whole. As the Rams’ top two performers, the juniors performed at a high level in both singles and doubles play, where they were consistent partners during the fall.

They lead the Rams to victory in their only home match of the year against cross-town rival Manhattan College, and set the standard of play at each of the invitationals the team competed at this fall.

As the fall season ends with the conclusion of Regionals, the Rams will look to heal a few nagging injuries and come back stronger than ever for the spring season.

“The overall fall season was a struggle for me because I was dealing with a worsening shoulder injury, but the end of the fall season will give me time to heal,” Ali said.

The Rams’ record for the fall was 1-0, which only includes the dual match against Manhattan, simply because the team’s schedule was centered around larger invitationals.

The Rams enter the offseason with a successful fall under their belt and looks to improve during the winter to better their skills for the spring season.