The University of Rhode Island women’s tennis team’s fourth-year Nikki Fernando sealed her name in URI tennis history on Friday, securing a program-best 65th doubles win.
“So happy for her, it couldn’t have happened for a better person, captain and player,” URI head coach Jonas Brobeck said. “Unfortunately, we could not capitalize on getting the doubles point. We lost at two and three, but that’s okay. And she carried that momentum into singles as well.”
The Rams faced two Atlantic 10 Conference opponents over the weekend, losing to Davidson College 4-3 on Friday before falling to the University of Richmond 4-2 on Saturday.
Three weeks before the A-10 Championship, which takes place in Lake Nona, Fla., on April 22-25, the Rams dropped to 1-2 in conference play with two tight contests against evenly matched opponents.
URI was sandwiched between the Wildcats and Spiders in the A-10 Preseason Poll. The Rams traveled to Davidson, N.C., for both matches.
Davidson, which earned its third conference win over the Rams, followed a doubles point win by edging out URI on the singles courts.
Rhody’s three points came from a trio of three-set wins from Fernando at the No. 2 spot, second-year Anastasia Pettersson at the No. 5 spot and first-year Miruna Scarlat at the No. 6 spot.
Fernando overcame a first-set loss to take a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Davidson’s third-year Bryson Langford. Pettersson took down first-year Keri Rothenberg 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 alongside Scarlat’s 6-0, 6-7 (2), 10-8 win over fourth-year Olivia Hooper.
“ We just needed one more spot,” Brobeck said. “Those are the tough times. That’s kind of why that doubles point is so important, right? If we get that doubles point, maybe the match is ours.”
The next day, URI earned the doubles point with wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 spots, but ultimately fell to the Spiders in singles.
Fernando earned her second singles win of the weekend in straight sets at the No. 2 spot, but losses in spots 3-6 sealed the win for Richmond.
“I thought we did a really good job of coming out with momentum into singles, which is a key, obviously not just being up 1-0, but also going out and playing freely and believing in our game plans,” Brobeck said. “[Richmond] stayed around, they fought, and it’s hard beating a team that competes. I think we are, with this experience, getting stronger and better.”
Fourth-year Sophie Herrman, first-year Kajsa Helgesen and Pettersson engaged in three-set battles in their respective matches, but ultimately the Spiders came away with the victories.
With just two conference matches and three overall matches remaining, the Rams will look to solidify the highest seeding possible, starting with two contests at the URI Tennis Complex.
“ It’s nice to be home,” Brobeck said. “We’ve been quite busy on the road from spring break until now. So we need to get home, sleep in our own beds. A little bit of rest up and back to work tomorrow morning to prepare for a very good Bryant [University] team on Thursday.”
The Rams take on the Bulldogs at 2 p.m. on Thursday, celebrating Fernando, Herrman and fourth-year Ava Grnja before the match for senior day. The Rams will also host A-10 foe George Washington University on Saturday at 11 a.m.
