The University of Rhode Island women’s tennis team made history on their senior day on Sunday when they defeated the University of Richmond 4-2 for the first time in the last 30 years of documented results.
Fifth-year Nadia Rajan was the ringleader in the victory, collecting wins in both singles and doubles. In her primary doubles victory alongside second-year Nikki Fernando, the duo knocked off fourth-years Andrea Campodonico and Claire Le Du of Richmond 6-3.
“I’m having a great time with [Fernando], we are really connecting super well,” Rajan said. “We are playing number one now, which is a bit of a step up from number two, but we honestly just really honed into each other’s games. We know what to do with each other and we just almost…[have] the same minds.”
Second-years Ava Grnja and Priyanka Shanker also recorded a 6-3 doubles win, along with third-year Klara Nelander and second-year Sophie Herman winning 6-1, resulting in a doubles sweep over the Spiders for Rhody.
Following the initial triumph, Rajan was able to defeat Richmond’s fourth-year Carly Cohen in a three-set singles match, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. Her 14th singles win of the season carried some extra weight due to certain members in attendance.
“Honestly, this week I really wanted to win because my family was actually there, they came from Australia for my Senior Day,” Rajan said. “For my parents it was the first time they have actually seen me play in college so I really wanted to win for them.”
Overall, Rhode Island was able to clinch four of their six singles matches, with Fernando, Nelander and Grnja also leaving their matches victorious.
After Rajan’s senior day sweep, she received a cherry on top by being named Atlantic 10 Player of the Week for the second time this season on Tuesday afternoon.
“It feels really good honestly,” Rajan said. “It feels great in a way that all of the hard work I have been doing has been paying off, and honestly just the team doing well and the way we are working as a team that is also just helping my game so much.”
Team success has certainly been a key product for the team this year in its first year under Head Coach Jonas Brobeck, according to Rajan.
“As a whole, our team [has been] really really happy with our performance,” Rajan said. “Honestly, I will definitely put it down to our coach. [Brobeck] just joined this year and he’s done a tremendous job just bringing us together as a team.. because honestly that gets us the edge over quite a lot of the teams we have played. He has brought in an energy and attitude that we needed in prior years to have the success we have had the last few weeks.”
Now, with only three matches left in the regular season, it all comes down to finishing strong for the women in Keaney Blue.
“We are definitely coming up against some really tough teams, especially in our conference,” Rajan said. “If we can solidify those wins we are going to get a pretty good ranking in the tournament. So definitely working as a team, competing at the highest level possible and understanding that we are all a bit tired. We are at the end of our season so some of us have played almost 35 matches. We just have to keep pushing through, keep the positive energy up right to the end.”
Rajan and the rest of the Rams are back in action in a match against George Washington University at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, which is set to be played at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.