By Sam Belden
Junior Estelle Wong advanced to her flight’s semifinals at Quinnipiac. (Andrea Garcia/The Fordham Ram)
Women’s Tennis returned to action over the weekend, traveling to Hamden, Connecticut for the Quinnipiac Women’s Invitational. The Fordham contingent turned in a strong performance, with several Rams placing well in their respective flights.
The biggest Fordham success from the event was senior Mayu Sato’s strong performance in the B singles flight. After defeating Brianne Lauria of Sacred Heart in the opening round, Sato had to battle in the quarterfinals to beat Drexel’s Lea Winkler, 4-6, 6-4, 10-6. After that, she topped Summer Walker of Connecticut, 6-4, 7-6, before falling to Jacqueline Fitz-Randolph, also of UConn, in the final.
Junior Estelle Wong also competed in the B singles flight. The California native opened the event with a 6-2, 3-6, 10-2 win over Amanda Pitocco of Providence and went on to beat Clary Rodriguez Cruz of Drexel, 7-5, 6-1, in the quarterfinals. She lost to Fitz-Randolph in the semifinals, robbing the crowd of a potential all-Fordham final.
Sophomore Carina Ma and freshman Maia Balce represented Fordham in the A singles flight. Ma turned in the better performance, advancing to the final four after a blistering 6-1, 6-1 win over Quinnipiac’s Rachel Horton in the quarterfinals. In the semis, she lost to UConn’s Yelyzaveta Pletnyeva, 6-1, 7-5.
Balce fell to Drexel’s Honami Yazawa, 6-2, 6-4, in the first round. However, she did defeat Olivia Podseibierski of Sacred Heart in the first round of the consolation bracket before losing to Jennifer Lu of Quinnipiac in the second.
In C singles, sophomore Alexis Zobeideh defeated Ally Haley of Army West Point, 6-1, 6-4, in her opening match before falling to Quinnipiac’s Proyfon Lohaphaisan one round later. Sophomore Gianna Insogna also competed in the C flight, falling in the first round to Army’s Yuka Lin, 6-3, 4-6, 10-5, before embarking on a nice run through the consolation bracket. After winning two matches to advance to the finals, she knocked off Haley in the championship, 8-2, to secure a small victory for the Rams.
In D singles, senior Destiny Grunin won her first two matches, defeating Emily Lombardi in the opening round, 6-1, 7-5, and Quinnipiac’s Kelsi Oliphant in the quarterfinals, 6-0, 7-5. However, she lost to Gloria Son of Army in the semifinals, 6-4, 6-3.
Sophomore Whitney Weisberg also competed in the D flight, where she fell to Quinnipiac’s Alex Mircea in the first round, 6-2, 6-3. She then won a pair of consolation matches before dropping the final to Anisiya Simpson of Drexel, 8-3.
To add to their singles successes, the Rams also placed well in the doubles flights. Wong and Sato advanced to the semifinals of the A flight, defeating duos from Army and Providence before falling to Young and Horton of Quinnipiac, 6-1. Ma and Balce also competed in the A flight. They reeled off 6-4 wins over Pitocco and Nicole Cyterski of Providence and Yazawa and Winkler of Drexel, but became the second Fordham duo to lose in the semis, falling to UConn’s Perrotta and Fitz-Randolph.
The pairings of Zobeideh and Grunin and Weisberg and Insogna competed in B doubles, but neither advanced past the quarterfinals.
While the Rams did not get a team result from this individual event, it was nevertheless a strong start to their season. Their first team event of the fall, the West Point Invitational, gets underway on Friday, Sept. 23 at the United States Military Academy. There, they will face many of the same teams they saw in Hamden.
