By Gigi Speer

On Saturday, the Fordham women’s tennis team traveled to West Point where it lost 4-1 before the games were cancelled. The next day, it came back to shutout St. Bonaventure 7-0, opening A-10 play strong.

The Army match saw sophomore Arina Taluyenko and senior Tatiana Grigoryan winning at first doubles, 6-3, but the team came up short, admitting defeat in doubles to West Point.

As for singles play, Taluyenko won the first set 6-3, before losing the second 3-6. Although she was ahead in the third set 2-0, the match was halted. At second singles, Grigoryan won 6-4, 7-5.

The next morning, playing again at the Lichtenberg Tennis Center upstate, the Rams showed no mercy against the Bonnies.

They swept all three doubles matches, with the Taluyenko-Grigoryan combo winning 6-1 at first doubles, freshman-senior bookends Nicole Li and Alexis Zobeideh coming to victory 6-4 at second doubles, and seniors Whitney Weisberg and Gianna Insogna besting their third doubles competitors 6-4.

Weisberg was happy with the win and ecstatic to play alongside one of her best friends on the team: “I was pretty excited to have the opportunity to play doubles with Gigi (Gianna) because she is one of my closest friends on the team,” she noted.

“We focused on leveraging our strengths and our opponents’ weaknesses to position ourselves to win. Gigi’s volleys were really proving to be a force to be reckoned with, while I, personally, focused on consistency. We have not played doubles together often, so we had to find a way to coordinate our game styles to achieve success which proved to be a challenge.”

The pair was successful, and this success continued in singles for the Rams, as they won all six single matches. At first singles, Taluyenko won in three sets: 6-3, 6-7 and 10-2. Grigoryan posted a score of 7-5, 6-2 in her second spot, and junior Maia Balce and Li both defeated their opponents 6-2 and 6-0 at third and fourth singles. Finally, Zobeideh brought it home for the squad, with perfect set scores of 6-0, 6-0.

With this match being the start of conference play, senior Weisberg is optimistic for their schedule ahead: “I am looking forward to working with my team in the future as we have a great group of girls this year both socially and athletically,” she said. “As a senior, I hope to act as a role model to our underclassmen in my work ethic and compassion for my teammates. I just hope that we can be there for each other in all aspects of our lives to have the best season possible. In regards to tennis, I look forward to continuing to improve in both doubles and singles.”

Catch the women’s tennis team in action this Friday, Mar. 1 at noon against George Washington at the Cary Leeds Tennis Center here in the Bronx.