The University of Rhode Island women’s tennis team picked up a pair of wins over Fairfield University and Sacred Heart University to improve to 2-1 on the season.
On Saturday, URI defeated the Stags by a score of 5-2. The Rams took two out of the three doubles matches to win the doubles point and take a 1-0 lead. Fourth-year Nikki Fernando and first-year Kajsa Helgesen won the first doubles match 6-1. Fourth-year Sophie Herrman and fourth-year Ava Grnja won their match 7-5.
“I didn’t know that I was going to play the first doubles when I came here,” Helgesen said. “As long as me and Nikki play well together I know that we can beat anyone.”
In singles play, Rhody took four of six matches. Big contributions came from the first-year duo of Helgensen and Miruna Scarlet. Helgensen battled back after losing her first set 3-6 by winning the next two 6-4 and 6-3. Scarlet won in straight sets 6-3 and 6-2. Fernando also came from behind to win her singles match in three sets, 0-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Rhody kept the comeback trend going as second-year Anastasia Petterson also won in three sets 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
After lots of rallying from behind by the Rams on Saturday, URI kept the momentum up on Sunday. Once again, they took two out of three doubles matches to win the doubles point. Fernando and Helgesen won 6-1, while the team of second-year Grace Darby and Petterson earned a tightly contested 7-6 tiebreaker win.
In singles, Rhode Island dominated, taking five out of six matches. Fernando and Helgesen both won; the duo went undefeated on the weekend, each went 2-0 both in doubles and singles. Petterson, 6-3 6-1 Herrman 6-0 6-1 and Darcy 6-1, 3-6 6-4 also came away with victories to give URI a 6-1 win.
The perfect weekend by Helgesen also earned her the Atlantic 10 Conference Rookie of the Week award.
“I actually found out through my mom,” Helgesen said. “I thought it was exciting. We’ve played three matches so far, so I’m excited to play the rest of the matches this season, and it’s good to see hard work pays off.”
The Rams have many returners from last season, losing only one player to graduation with the additions of Scarlet and Helgesen, this team, according to URI Head Coach Jonas Brobeck has a lot to be excited about.
“We have high expectations for sure,” Brobeck said. “We try to not talk too much about large goals; the goal is always to compete at our highest level and continue to develop.”
Rhode Island was eliminated in the second round of the A-10 Championship last year by the eventual champion, Virginia Commonwealth University.
“We have an opportunity to compete for an A-10 championship,” Brobeck said. “We are very deep this year, whatever player we put out on each spot, we are going to be good, and we know that, so we need to do a really good job of continuing to develop.”
Rhode Island will have its first pair of home matches against Hofstra University on Saturday and Providence College on Sunday. Both matches will be at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport.
