After a tough 4-1 loss to Army last weekend, the UConn women’s tennis team bounced back in nail-biting fashion. The Huskies were back in Connecticut for this matchup against Quinnipiac after their quick two-game road trip. The match against the Bobcats on Wednesday ended 4-3 and wasn’t decided until the very final singles contest.
Results
This matchup kicked off with some doubles action, as UConn juniors Olivia Wright and Maria Constantinou breezed by graduate student Jordan Bradley and senior Dominique Yeo by a score of 6-2. Unfortunately for UConn, Constantinou suffered an injury and was out for the rest of the matchup after securing the win. The Huskies then stretched their lead to 2-0 after junior Isabel Petri Bere and freshman Caroline Hinshaw won with a perfect 6-0 score against sophomore Vera Sekerina and freshman Anagha Shankar. After senior Nansi Toskova and freshman Victoria Matos suffered a crushing 6-3 defeat at the hands of freshmen Caroline and Schulson Caitlin Flower in the final doubles match, UConn took a 2-1 overall lead with them in singles play.
To start things off for the Huskies, Petri Bere and Hinshaw secured back-to-back wins in singles play. Bere got the better of Sekerina in straight sets (6-3, 6-0) and Hinshaw took care of business against Yeo in straight sets as well (6-3, 6-3). These wins stretched UConn’s match lead to 4-1 overall, but the Bobcats didn’t lose hope. Quinnipiac rattled off three straight wins, knotting things up at four-a-piece. Flower, Shankar and freshman Ella Lewis all had convincing straight set victories against freshman Isabella Asenov, Wright and Matos respectively.
The final match of the day between UConn sophomore Cameron Didion and QU freshman Caroline Schulson would end up being the decider. In the first set, Didion got things started with a win in game one, but Schulson won back-to-back games to shift the lead to 2-1 in her favor. After going back and forth for the next few games, they found themselves tied at four games apiece. It was anyone’s set and Didion ended it with two straight wins. With the first set over and done with, finishing 6-4 to Didion, all she needed was six more wins to bring home the victory for the Huskies. Didion and Schulson found themselves in an identical situation in the second set, and the same exact result came from it. Didion broke the 4-4 deadlock once again with two wins in a row, winning the second set 6-4 and securing the entire matchup against Quinnipiac for UConn.
Coming Up Next
UConn will be back in action against Xavier on Saturday Feb. 10 at 3:00 p.m. at the Magic Lincer Tennis Academy (404 W Center St) in Manchester, Conn.