It has been a tough stretch for the UConn women’s tennis team as of late. Since returning home from Florida fresh off the heels of two dominant match victories, the Huskies came into their Saturday afternoon matchup with the Boston University Terriers on a three game losing streak. In danger of falling to .500 for the first time Feb. 27, the Terriers came into the match winners of two in a row and looked to take care of business at home in their last out-of-conference match of the regular season.
The doubles matches were contested throughout, but UConn could not establish the momentum needed to secure the point. In Doubles No.1, Leonie Hoppe and Doga Selen Takunyaci suffered a defeat to Erica Di Battista and Emily Kim, 6-3. Aleksandra Karamyshev and Isabel Petri Bere experienced more of the same in No.2, losing to Shelly Yaloz and Kaitlin Tan, 6-4. The Terriers completed the doubles sweep in No.3, as the duo of Sydney Sharma and Victoria Carlsten defeated Caroline Cook and Denise Lai by a score of 6-2.
This momentum established by BU carried over into the singles matches, winning in straight sets in four out of the six showdowns. Hoppe secured the only point for UConn in an intense back-and-forth match that saw her come out on top, 2-6, 7-5, 10-8 against Carlsten in Singles No 1. Karamyshev found herself in another duel with Di Battista, eventually falling 1-6, 6-3, 8-10. The next matches were dominated by the Terriers. Caroline Cook fell in straight sets in No.3 to Kaitlin Tan, 2-6, 0-6. Petri Bere suffered a similar style of defeat in Singles No.4, dropping the match to Boston’s Shelly Yaloz 3-6, 0-6. Lai was unable to take care of business against Sharma in No.5, failing to avenge the defeat in the doubles match, 3-6, 0-6. Emily Kim completed the strong performance for the Terriers as Selen Takunyaci dropped Singles No.6, 2-6, 1-6.
With the loss on Saturday, UConn dropped their fourth match in a row, falling to 7-7 on the season with six matches left before the Big East Tournament begins later this month on April 21. The Huskies will look to get back in the win column on Tuesday, April 5 when they return home to face Boston College, the first of a back-to-back, before hitting the road again to take on Providence College on Wednesday, which will be their first conference matchup since March 27.
