After a hot streak that lasted more than half of February, the UConn tennis team hit a bit of a stumbling block, losing two in a row before spring break. Reinvigorated after a long duration of rest, they hope to regain the momentum that they built up with their long stretch of winning as they face two local rivals. First, the Huskies will take on St. John’s University in Flushing Meadows, New York on Friday at 12:15 p.m. Then, to close out the weekend, they’ll come back home and take on Boston University on Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Magic Lincer Tennis Academy in Manchester, Connecticut.
UConn struggled to achieve consistency in their last two meets, both of which they lost 2-5. Against the Creighton Bluejays, 1-singles Olivia Wright and 5-singles Cameron Didion were the only ones to win in one-on-one competition, and Didion and her partner Denise Lai managed to hold a slim lead over their 3-doubles opponent before the game was called prematurely. The battle versus Navy was not much different: while 2-singles Maria Constantinou came out victorious in both singles and doubles thanks to a great solo 6-2 and 6-4 performance and a gritty 6-4 victory in tandem with Wright to win 1-doubles, Didion won her 5-singles match again. The Huskies couldn’t find their rhythm or pace and had to play on their backfoot all weekend, leading to two disappointing defeats.
Connecticut will look to turn that around, however, as they take on the St. John’s Red Storm. St. John’s has been a decent team all year, as they’ve amassed an 8-6 overall record and a 2-0 total in Big East conference play. They’ve had quite a few impressive wins, including big 7-0 sweeps over Villanova, Monmouth and Marist, but have also been dealt punishing blows by the likes of Delaware (1-6), the University of North Texas (1-6), Dartmouth (2-5) and No. 5 Yale. Their last game, however, was a quality victory over another Big East opponent in Providence, 6-1. Their only loss was the result of a St. John’s player retiring from their match, and the Red Storm were otherwise very dominating. Highlights from the meet include Camila Ordonez not allowing her opponent to win a single game in a double-6-0 rout, while Amaya Lopez fell just short of that, conceding one game in a 6-0, 6-1 thorough defeat. If St. John’s plays like this again versus the Huskies, UConn will be in for a rough afternoon.
The Boston University Terriers also look to be formidable foes, as they hold a 10-4 record over the course of the whole season and are 1-0 in Patriot League play. Boston has been an impressive team all year with wins over Cornell (5-2), Bucknell (7-0) and Dartmouth (6-1). Their great play has left them with only a few bad losses on the year: much like the Huskies, the Terriers have been swept 0-7 by Boston College. They’ve also taken a beating at the hands of Syracuse 1-6 and had an unfortunate loss to California State University-Northridge, 3-4. Their most recent meet may be the best of their season: they defeated a ranked opponent in No. 49 Brown thanks to stellar play from their 2-singles Michelle Kleynerman and their 3-singles Victoria Carlsten, who both came in as heavy underdogs and stole the show. With how good BU looks, the Huskies will have to make themselves ready for quite a fight.
Even though Connecticut will want to pull themselves out of their slump, they’ll need to do it against some stiff competition. The Huskies will really need maximum effort to pull off two perceived upsets. However, should they play like they did in February, they should be able to pose a real challenge and could even come out of the weekend with a win or two.
Wow! that headline sure is racist! Warpath? I guess you’re anti-indigenous peoples.