After last weekend’s cancellation of the NJIT Invitational in Newark due to the blizzard, the women’s tennis team postponed their season opener to a dual match against Drexel University on January 29th. The team took a 5-2 loss in its first action of the spring season.
Out of six allotted singles matches, there were two Fordham victories. Sophomore captain Estelle Wong beat Drexel’s Erin Bowsher in an easy two-set 6-3 rally. After a grueling three-set match, freshman Gianna Insogna overcame the Dragons’ Rushena Providence in a 1-6, 6-4 and 10-3 series.
The most notably difficult setbacks of the afternoon’s match were junior Hannah Drayton and freshman Alexis Zobeideh’s individual losses to Drexel players Clary Rodriguez Cruz and Lea Winkler, respectively, in three set matches. Drayton secured the first set in a 5-7 win, but she fell in the two following sets in 6-4 and 6-3 battles. Zobeideh lost in a first set 7-6 (2) tiebreaker and 6-2 second set.
The Drexel Dragons posed a challenge to juniors Maya Soto and Destiny Grunin. Sato lost to Drexel’s Honami Yazawa in two 6-4 sets. Gruinin put up a valient effort in her match. After struggling out of the gate and losing the first set 6-0, she battled in the second and improved, losing 6-4.
Drexel secured the day’s win after a 4-2 completion of the singles matches. However, the dual match progressed with the three scheduled doubles matches. Even though the event’s outcome had already been determined, the doubles team of Sato and Drayton fought back. They were Fordham’s only winning pair after beating Yazawa and Cruz in a deciding 6-4 match.
“There is a lot of dedication and hard work on our team this year,” said Wong. “We view every practice as a chance to improve.”
The women’s tennis team has two more weeks of scheduled practice until it has an opportunity to demonstrate its progress in Newark against NJIT on Valentine’s Day.
After that, they will head upstate to battle with Army West Point and Marist on the weekend of Feb. 27.
