Tennis: The trend continues for the UConn women’s tennis team as they lose one and win one to Big East rivals as they keep on par with their .500 record. They suffered a difficult loss at the hands of Xavier, 1-6 in Cincinnati on Friday, but evened out their record again with a much-needed 5-2 win over Butler in Indianapolis on Saturday. The boat seems to keep rocking for the Huskies as they look for anything to stabilize themselves and gain some forward momentum.
The meet against the Xavier Musketeers saw the Huskies never really get the first strike that they needed, and their issues snowballed from there. The doubles portion of the day was a battle, as Aleksandra Karamyshev and Isabel Petri Bere, the first doubles squad, fought tooth and nail to keep the match close. They succeeded, but as the set went to tiebreak, they ran out of steam, and lost the final round 7-3. Even with Maria Constantinou and Doga Selen Takunyaci taking the third doubles set, the Musketeers snuffed out any hope and won the second doubles match easily, taking the point there. After they fought so hard, and saw it come to nothing, the Huskies just couldn’t keep up the rest of the way. Karamyshev took another set with ease in the singles spot, but the rest of the team could not join her in the win column. Despite feeling so close for most of the day, UConn couldn’t win crucial matches and the floodgates opened as they fell by a match count of 1-6.
The Huskies’ Saturday would go a lot better as they took on the Butler Bulldogs, though. Connecticut crushed it in doubles, as the Constantinou and Takunyaci pairing took their second doubles victory of the weekend and Denise Lai and Cameron Didion crushed their second doubles foes, 6-1. UConn kept the momentum going from there, too: Karamyshev kept her weekend flawless and Constantinou took yet another match. Joining them on the winning side were Didion and Caroline Cook, who all outplayed and outmatched their opponents for the entirety of the day. That Saturday saw the entire group flourish for the first time in a while, keeping alive some hope that they can really do some damage when tournament time comes.
The Huskies have had an up-and-down season, and this weekend has not been an exception. However, with how their last match turned out, they’ll be looking to push forward with great energy into their final match of the season against Massachusetts. After all that has happened so far, if they can walk away from it with a positive record, then they can still have something to be proud of for this season.
