By Charlie Maisano

Fordham Women’s Tennis improved to a 5-8 record over the weekend. (Courtesy of Fordham Athletics)

It was an A-10 filled weekend for the Fordham Women’s Tennis team, as it welcomed two of its conference foes to the Bronx for back-to-back games. Entering into the weekend, the Rams were 4-7 (1-1 A-10) and in the midst of a season long four game losing streak. This past weekend also marked their first games of April, so it was a good time to put March in the past.

Their first game of the weekend came on Friday against the lowly Saint Joseph’s Hawks. Saint Joseph’s entered the contest with a 3-10 record and was defeated by their fellow Philadelphia rival, the Villanova Wildcats, 4-1. When the Rams faced off against the Hawks last season, they dismantled them in a dominating 7-0 victory.

The year was the only main difference in this year’s matchup, as the Rams won 4-0 after another commanding performance. They won the doubles point to start the game by winning two of the three matches. Junior Tatiana Grigoryan and senior Carolina Sa won the first doubles match of the evening by beating Hawks sister team of senior Maureen Devlin and sophomore Katherine Devlin, 7-5. Following that victory, the Hawks came back and took the second doubles match. Freshman Amanda Nava and junior Isis Gill-Reed defeated senior Estelle Wong and junior Whitney Weisburg, 7-5. In order to win the doubles point, it was up to the team of sophomore Maia Balce and junior Gianna Insogna. In what was an intense game against junior Laura Gomez and freshman Lourdes Sprinckmoller, Balce and Insogna came out victorious and secured the point for the Rams by winning the match, 7-5.

The Rams followed the doubles games by sweeping their way through the Hawks in singles. Three of the women, Balce, Weisburg and Wong won their matches in two sets. The other three women, Grigoryan, Insogna and Sa were leading before their matches were stopped.

After the game, Head Coach Bette-Ann Liguori was glad to see her team step up in a must-win situation.

“St. Joes was a huge turnaround for us as a team since we needed to win that match. It was good to see everyone lift their game in order to win. We needed to win and it was great to see them come out and perform at the highest level, even though some of the team had to switch partners.”

Now at 5-7 on the season, the Rams hosted the UMass Minutewomen on Saturday afternoon. The last time Fordham and UMass met, the Minutewomen defeated the Rams in the third round of the A-10 Tournament down in Florida. UMass went on to win the tournament, but fall in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to the #1 ranked Florida Gators.

The Minutewomen would get the upper hand once again, as they defeated the Rams 6-1. Don’t let the score fool you because the Rams hung in tight against the defending A-10 champs. In doubles, Grigoryan and Sa were tied with senior Ana Yrazusta and freshman Anna Napadiy at five apiece before the game was stopped. After that, both the teams of Wong and Weisburg and Balce and Insogna fell to their opponents, 6-3.

The lone win for the Rams in singles came from Insogna, who outlasted freshman Jovana Bogicevic, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3. The rest of the team fell in their singles matches, but each of the Minutewomen needed two sets to finally shake off the Rams.

Although it wasn’t the result she wanted, Coach Liguori was proud of her team.

“We played very hard against the defending champions. I feel that we tested them better than a school like Army. UMASS beat Army badly, but Army beat us [5-2]. They are that good of a team. I think we will build on this performance. We had some tight losses this season, only by the matter of a few points, and this loss wasn’t as bad as it looked.”

With a record of 5-8, the Rams will once again play back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday this weekend. The Queens College Knights will cross the bridge and play the Rams in the Bronx on Friday at 1 p.m. Then on Saturday, the Rams travel to Long Island to face the Stony Brook Seawolves at noon. The season for the Rams is coming down to the wire, as they will only have two games remaining before the A-10 Tournament after this weekend. Fordham will be looking for all the wins they can in order to continue to build their confidence for the big weekend in Florida at the end of the month.