After a brutal weekend, the UConn women’s tennis team looks to get back on track as they take on Stony Brook in Manchester, Connecticut at the Magic Lincer Tennis Club at 6 p.m. on Friday. They’ll be looking for better results than the previous two losses to make the pain sting that much less.
The Huskies suffered a tough 3-4 loss to Drexel University last Friday, and followed it up with another crushing defeat, getting completely swept by Rutgers University 0-7. However, both meets were equally well-fought. UConn was never outclassed in either of these. However, due to some unfortunate slow starts and a real killer instinct from their opponents, the Huskies couldn’t manage to grab a win in either meet. At this point in the season, though, both meets will have to be chalked up to early-season jitters and used as character-builders going forward, since there’s plenty more tennis to be played.
The Huskies will be taking on the Stony Brook Seawolves, who also come into this one with a 1-2 record, not yet having played against a Colonial Athletic Association opponent. After starting the season 0-2 with an 0-7 loss to Army and a 1-6 loss to Seton Hall University, they took their most recent meet with an impressive 6-1 win over Lehigh University. In that one, they dominated in doubles, winning two matches with 6-3 and 6-1 scores and taking another by default. They weren’t too shabby on the singles side either, only dropping one match out of four. All three wins were of the three-set variety, with two of them being reverse sweeps. Even though they started the season slow, the Seawolves showed that they can still be a force with that solid win over the Lehigh Mountain Hawks.
Since 2009, the Huskies hold a 3-9 record against the Seawolves. Stony Brook actually has a two-meet winning streak against UConn, making this battle seem like an uphill one. That makes this meeting between these two schools a huge chance for UConn to make a statement, getting back up after getting knocked down last weekend.
This matchup should be a close one: both teams have been sluggish to start the young season, but certainly have enough potential to each turn it around. Winning on Friday would give either team great momentum that they can carry through the rest of the season, since they’d have proven that even in the short term, they can recover gracefully and rebalance themselves. Don’t be surprised if the Huskies come into this one ready to fight, show their mettle and grab a bounce-back win.
