The University of Rhode Island women’s tennis team kept its undefeated season alive this past weekend with wins over Fairfield University and Nichols College.
After opening their season with wins against Le Moyne College and Colgate University, the Rams looked to remain perfect as they took on the reigning Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion, Fairfield Stags, on Saturday. URI took two out of the three doubles matches to earn a point, thanks to the efforts of third-year Nikki Fernando and first-year Katarina Spieth, who won their doubles match 6-3. Fourth-year Klara Nelander and third-year Sophie Herrman were also victorious by a score of 7-5.
“We’re doing better in doubles than last year,” URI Head Coach Jonas Brobeck said. “Which is something we are really honing in on because we’re so deep right now in singles this year, we’re good at every spot. We don’t have any holes in the singles lineup so if we can be successful on the doubles court, we will be really hard to beat.”
Rhody displayed their depth in singles play on Saturday, taking five out of six matches; Nelander, Spieth and Fernando all won their matches in straight sets. Herrman went three sets in her match, losing the first set 6-4, but then bouncing back to win the second before dropping a close third set 12-10. Herrman’s singles match would end up being the sole point for Fairfield, as first-years Gracy Darcy and Anastasia Petterson also gave URI a point each, helping Rhody defeat the Stags 6-1 and improve to 3-0 on the season.
“I feel like we had a really good start to our season,” Nelander said. “We’ve been practicing very hard and both of our coaches have been very good with strategy. I feel like the team dynamic has been good. We’ve been very focused on the process rather than the result and the results have just been coming.”
The Rams continued to roll on Sunday, sweeping Nichols 6-0. Second-year Blake Rothchild won her debut match of the spring season in two sets, winning both with a score of 6-3.The duo of Spieth and Fernando improved to 2-0 on the weekend in doubles play when they picked up a 6-1 win. Nelander and Herrman also improved to 2-0 in doubles with their 6-0 victory.
Third-year Ava Grnja was also in action; she was leading 6-4, 2-1 before the match was cut short due to weather concerns and the fact that URI had already clinched the win.
“At a mid-major level it’s not always the team with the best one and two that wins,” Brobeck said. “It’s the teams with the best four, five and six that are really good at doubles and are really gritty.”
As a team, the Rams won a total of 16 out of the 18 matches this weekend in singles and doubles, along with a pair of decisive victories. In those matches, they outscored opponents by a combined 12-1.
Rhode Island will look to remain unbeaten and push its win streak to five straight when they host Quinnipiac University at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport on Saturday.