The University of Rhode Island tennis team took a trip to the Tennis Club of Trumbull on Thursday to take on Sacred Heart University.
Both teams came into the match on win streaks. URI had won their last nine matches giving them a 10-2 record, and SHU had won three straight coming into the match at 10-3. URI had an injury to start the match when fourth-year Valentina Cvackova got injured in her doubles match. The Rams were forced to retire from the match, meaning SHU would pick up the doubles point and URI would go down 1-0 headed into singles play.
“A player getting injured and losing the doubles point at the same time, of course it’s going to affect the match a bit,” URI Head Coach Jonas Brobeck said. “But I thought the girls actually did a pretty good job of that. We spoke about that in the huddle about how we need to just compete for Valentina.”
The wins in singles play for the Rams came from fifth-year Nadia Rajan and third-year Klara Nelander earning quick victories in two sets.
“We had a talk right after doubles, where coach said we should play for Valentina and just fight and do our best,” Nelander said. “I just tried to stay calm and stay in the present and do what I could.”
Nelander won her match in straight sets by a score of 6-0, 6-1. Rajan would also earn a two set win with scores of 6-2, 6-3.
“The whole singles lineup had to change and we had to put in some players that weren’t ready to play,” Nelander said. “We were definitely shocked. It for sure affected us but they were also very strong. I think we did what we could.”
With Cvackova’s injury and her being unable to compete in singles, Fernando, Klara Nelander and first-year Steph Hylton all moved up a spot in the lineup and second-year Priyanka Shanker moved into the sixth spot.
Fernando and Hylton both started off strong in their matches with 6-2 wins in their first set, but would ultimately be defeated in three sets. Fernando (2-6, 7-6 (4), 10-6) went to tiebreakers in both her second and third set but would end up dropping both. Hylton (2-6, 6-2, 6-2) would go down after consecutive 6-2 losses. Second-year Sophie Herrman would drop both sets in a 6-1, 6-4 loss along with Shanker, who would do the same in a 6-4, 6-3 loss.
The two set victories by Nelander and Rajan were the only points that Rhody would land in the match, ultimately falling 5-2 to the Pioneers.
“We have to learn from this,” Brobeck said. “Sometimes it’s good to have these humbling matches, if you learn from it the right way you can grow from it, it was good it happened against Sacred Heart instead of an Atlantic 10 conference match.”
Rhody will look to get back into the win column and start another winning streak as they travel to Davidson College on Saturday at 11 a.m. in their second A-10 match of the season.