In their last appearance — a trip to play the Minutemen of the University of Massachusetts (UMass) — the Rams saw their eight-match winning streak snapped; a week later, in another intra-conference tilt, Fordham got back into the win column in dominant fashion.
Fordham will enter the Atlantic 10 conference tournament and vie for its second consecutive championship after taking care of a scuffling St. Joseph’s University’s (SJU) squad, putting the cherry on top of a phenomenal regular season. The team finishes with a 13-6 record, tied with the University of Rhode Island (URI) for the second-best overall winning percentage in the conference.
On Saturday, April 20, the Hawks flew into the Bronx to try and play spoiler against a Rams team that dedicated the match day, its final on home turf, to its alumni. The 3-17 SJU crew proved no match for a deep and cohesive Rams unit that has made quick work of most of its A-10 competition.
A point of close scrutiny for the Rams this season has been at doubles: the Rams have been inconsistent, yet generally improved, while winning the bulk of their matches on the back of strong singles play. At this point in the season, the Rams have some well-established duos at doubles. At #1, graduate student Raffaela Alhach and freshman Anlin Xie continued to build their chemistry by taking a 6-1 win over the Hawks’ top pairing. At #2, seniors Eleni Fasoula and Rose Hu clinched the point by way of a 6-4 showing, the tandem’s sixth win in their last eight matches.
The match then proceeded to singles play, where the Rams continued to appear in tournament form. Xie took command at #3, where she delivered a 6-1, 6-1 performance — her seventh straight singles win and a team-leading 10th overall. Fasoula appeared equally overpowering in her #4 match, where she took a straight-set victory, 6-2, 6-4. Hu clinched the win for Fordham, breezing to a 6-3, 6-3 win at the two-spot, making her 7-2 in her last nine finished singles matches. The Rams imposed their will over a scuffling Hawks team, failing to drop a set; they’ll look to ride this momentum into postseason play.
The seeding for the tournament has yet to be released, but you can anticipate the Rams to be in contention for a top-three seed and a first-round bye. As such, it’s likely that the Rams’ first postseason matchup will be on Thursday, April 25, in the quarterfinals. Among the conference’s top contenders are Fordham (#2 in the pre-season poll), Virginia Commonwealth University (#1), URI (#8), UMass (#4) and the 14-3 St. Louis Billikens, who initially polled at #7.
