In an almost identical fashion as last year, the UConn Women’s Tennis team put on a show at the Quinnipiac Invite this past weekend in Storrs. After three days of competition, the Huskies finished 22-8 across all their matches. Although their last match was delayed due to complications from the stormy weather, the Huskies weren’t phased and had an overall dominant performance.
Day 1: vs. Fairfield
Six singles matches were played and UConn came away with six wins. The winning Huskies were Olivia Wright, Maria Constantinou, Aleksandra Karamyshev, Isabella Asenov, Caroline Hinshaw and Victoria Matos. Some notable performances came from two unfamiliar faces, first years Victoria Matos and Caroline Hinshaw. Both looked great in their first ever collegiate tennis action, each only losing one game out of 13 in their singles matches. Wright had the closest match, winning her first set 6-4 and edging out a 7-5 victory in the second to secure the win.
For doubles competition, Connecticut and Fairfield split the two matches played. Constantinou and Matos secured a 6-2 victory over the pairing of graduate student Francesca Karman (2022-23 All-MAC First Team) and first year Maeve Cassidy. In the second doubles match, Fairfield’s duo of first-year student Nicolette Loeffler and senior Katarina Plumtree got the better of junior Isabel Petri Bere and Asenov, winning 6-2.
Day 2: vs. Army
Against an opponent who’s historically been a tall task for the Huskies, they held their own in Sunday’s showdown against Army. They played eight singles matches this time around, splitting them 4-4, with wins coming from Wright, Constantinou, Petri Bere and Matos. Notably, Matos had another dominating performance. She cruised to a 6-1 win in her first set vs. Army’s captain, senior Carolyn Ahn, and finished off her victory with another 6-1 win. In one of only three games to exceed two sets for UConn, Karamyshev lost a heartbreaker 6-2, 4-6, 10-4 against sophomore Emma Sy.
Once again, two doubles matches were played, which were also split 1-1. Juniors Julia Kelly and Jenna Sabile of Army got the better of senior Nansi Toskova and Asenov in a match that finished 6-3. Petri Bere and senior Varsha Rathore got one back for the Huskies, though, winning a hard-fought match 7-5 against Army’s Carolyn Ahn and sophomore Isabella Brilliant.
Day 3: vs. Quinnipiac
UConn won seven of eight singles matches, and 11 of 12 total, against Quinnipiac on the last day of the invite. Two of those singles wins ended up needing three sets to complete. In the first, Constantinou defeated first year Anagha Shankar with a score of 3-6, 6-4, 10-8. In the second, Matos continued her unbeaten run defeating graduate student Jordan Bradley 2-6, 6-4, 10-4. The other winning Huskies were Wright, sophomore Cameron Didion and Petri Bere.
UConn cruised in their doubles action in this one, apart from a nailbiter from Petri Bere and Toskova. They split their first set 5-5 vs. Anagha Shankar and senior Dominique Yeo, and grinded out a great win in the tiebreaker set 7-5.
Overall
UConn looked great and it was only their first match of the season, which bodes well going forward. Three Huskies: Constantinou, Wright and Matos finished off the three days without losing a single match. While they ended the invite with one less win than last year, 22-8 is nothing to be upset about. They’ll be looking to keep up the good performances in next week’s matches.
Next weekend, Sep. 15-17, will host the UConn Invite in Storrs. They’ll welcome Bryant, Wesleyan and Sacred Heart in what should be another action-packed weekend of tennis.
