The University of Rhode Island women’s tennis team traveled to Boston to compete in the Harvard Fall Classic over the weekend, gaining matches under its belt ahead of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association New England Regionals on Thursday, Oct. 9.
Rhody faced off against Boston College on Friday, Harvard University on Saturday and Boston University on Sunday.
Throughout the two-day stretch, the Rams earned two wins, both against BC. In doubles play, the duo of fourth-year Nikki Fernando and first-year Kajsa Helgesen took down BC fifth-year Leyden Games and third-year Tola Glowacka, 7-5. This put Fernando and Helgesen’s record in the fall at 3-3.
Fourth-year Ava Grnja earned Rhody’s second win, taking down BC fourth-year Alexandra Torre in a 6-4, 6-2 score.
“Ava played phenomenal against Boston College; super proud of her [for] following the game plan and being a little bit more aggressive, which we’ve been working on for some time now,” URI Head Coach Jonas Brobeck said. “It’s one thing doing it in practice, but then [it’s another thing to] be brave enough to execute it in matches. And she did that against a really good player.”
In last year’s spring season, all three of Harvard, BC and BU finished top 10 in the ITA’s New England region rankings.
“ It’s so important when you play really good tennis players that you have the right mindset, go out and compete and truly believe in your game,” Brobeck said. “I thought we did that pretty well. We played some really good teams this weekend, and some players that were definitely better than us. When we didn’t clean up those details, we got very exposed.”
There were no singles matches on Saturday against Harvard that lasted more than two sets. However, on Sunday against BU, Rams second-years Anastasia Pettersson and Grace Darcy took their opponents to three sets.
Darcy and BU third-year Blanka DeMicheli battled it out, resulting in a 6-7 (1), 6-4, 10-1 win for DeMicheli. Pettersson took on team fourth-year Rhea Rai, where Rai came out on top in a 6-4, 2-6, 10-5 score.
“ I wish that we had been able to get a couple more wins this week,” Brobeck said. “I think we had opportunities to win a couple of matches against BU, with Grace and Anastasia losing in super-tiebreakers. But every match was really high quality, and therefore you cannot ask for better. Matches are the best practice, so to say.”
Fernando sealed her spot in the main draw for the ITA New England Regionals, with Darcy, Pettersson, Helgesen and fourth-year Sophie Herrman set to compete in the qualification draw. The six-day tournament begins on Thursday with the qualifying round.
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