Over the weekend, the University of Rhode Island women’s tennis team hosted their annual Fall Invite, winning in both singles and doubles matches that featured Providence College, Bryant University, Sacred Heart University, Merrimack College and New Jersey Institute of Technology.
During the first day of the invite, first-year Grace Darcy and first-year Anastasia Pettersson started off the doubles rounds by defeating PC first-year partnership Flora Eidson and Allison Root, 6-4. With the win, the pair moved on to the second round to defeat Bryant’s pair of fourth-year Caitlyn Munson and third-year Natalia Vela 6-3.
Finally, the duo faced Merrimack’s third-year Kiana Thompson and fourth-year Caitlin McLoughlin, where URI dominated in a 6-1 win.
“I would say that our freshmen really stepped up,” URI Assistant Coach Dan Cardiff said. “They really kinda found their form in doubles which is a great testament to hard work and really kind of trusting the process, which is something that we always preach.”
URI’s pair of third-year Ava Grnja and second-year Stephanie Hylton could not keep the wins going, as they were defeated by Bryant second-year Aurora Pedwell and first-year Gia Fenton-Noriega, 6-1.
When it came to singles on Sunday, URI’s fourth-year Klara Nelander competed in a close back-and-forth match against Sacred Heart’s second-year Hana Hofmanova, but eventually took an 8-6 win and moved on to the final round to take on PC’s fifth-year Elise Leik. Nelander would defeat Leik, winning by a score of 8-1.
Both first-years Darcy and Pettersson both competed in their own singles matches. Darcy took on Merrimack’s third-year Kiana Thompson and won 6-2 to move onto the final round to face Bryant’s third-year Natalia Vela. Darcy fell short in the final, losing 7-5.
Pettersson took on Merrimack’s McLoughlin and won 6-3 to move on to play Bryant’s second-year Maria Jose Hernandez Diaz. Petterson fell to Diaz 7-5.
To end the weekend, second-year Stephanie Hyltob took on Merrimack’s fourth-year Vanshita Malhotra and won by a score of 6-2 and moved on to face NJIT’s first-year Petra Kozso. Hylton won by a score of 6-3.
“The overall weekend was very successful,” Cardiff said. “The level of play was very high on Sunday. We had some close matches that could’ve gone our way. So the level was there. But we couldn’t convert on a few moments so that was tough. But at the end of the day I think they all worked really hard and the wins that we got, which we got a lot of wins, were all earned.”
Although the Rams had some struggles here and there, they were able to find some success through the invite. However, Cardiff believes that his team does have some things to improve on going forward, not just revolving around a tennis ball.
“Well the next couple of weeks are the time to fine tune things,” Cardiff said. “So we will be individualizing quite a bit to figure out where we can improve before the spring. But making sure we have our bodies healthy, making sure that we can dial in on the little things. Thinking about some areas where we can improve in terms of on and off court so that way when the springtime rolls around for our dual matches we are locked in.”
The URI women’s tennis team ended their fall on a strong note and look to continue their success in the spring.