The UConn women’s tennis team had a successful weekend, defeating both Rhode Island and Providence by scores of 5-2 on Thursday and Sunday, respectively. Both matches were held at the team’s indoor facility, Magic Lincer Tennis Academy in nearby Manchester.
Despite URI having their fair share of successes this season, the Huskies came into Thursday ready to excel. Each doubles team would win their matchup 6-3, showing the team’s camaraderie. On the singles side, four UConn athletes would come up with a win, including three (Olivia Wright, Maria Constantinou and Aleksandra Karamyshev) that won their doubles contest as well.
Stepping up for Connecticut in a big way on Thursday was senior Denise Lai. After Cameron Didion was ruled out for the match due to injury, Lai took the role of Singles No. 6, defeating Rhode Island’s Priyanka Shanker 6-4, 6-1.
“This was a challenging match today against a very good URI team,” said Director of Tennis Glenn Marshall. “Our entire team came together and fought for the victory. Our doubles continued to be solid, which I’m very pleased with since we have been working hard on this… I’m pleased with their effort and fight today; it was a total team win.”
That doubles success didn’t carry over to Sunday’s performance. The talented Friars duos proved to outmatch the Huskies, taking two of the three matches. Only the Doubles No. 2 combination of Karamyshev and Isabel Petri Bere walked away victorious, winning their contest 6-4.
Despite losing the doubles point, UConn bounced back handily in the singles matchups, taking five of six. The only Husky that suffered a loss was Singles No. 1 Wright, falling in a second set tiebreaker. Among the highlights was Constantinou, narrowly defeating her opponent 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-2), 7-5. Lai came up big again as well in place of Didion, taking home Singles No. 6 in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1.
“This was a nice win today over a tough Providence team,” said Marshall on Sunday. “We dug ourselves a hole by losing the doubles point, but we responded nicely in our singles matches… I was very pleased that we responded so well in singles today. It put our toughness to the test, and we came through in the end.”
With the pair of victories, Connecticut improves to 6-2 on the year and 1-0 in the Big East, riding a four-game win streak. They’ve had quite the stretch, wrapping up their fifth match in less than two weeks on Wednesday. The Huskies will take on the Quinnipiac Bobcats at 1 p.m. at the Magic Lincer Tennis Academy in Manchester, Connecticut.
