Coming off a 7-0 loss to Xavier, the UConn women’s tennis team had a chance to get back to their winning ways this past weekend. On Friday, they welcomed Stony Brook University to town and took care of business, securing a 5-2 victory. On Sunday, in another home match, Rutgers got the better of UConn in a matchup that also finished 5-2.
Stony Brook Results
Things kicked off with three doubles matches, two of which went in the favor of UConn. The third remained unfinished, but senior Nansi Toskova and freshman Isabella Asenov were winning 5-2 against freshmen Cornelia Bruu-Syversen and Darian Perfiliev of Stony Brook prior to the match being cut short.
Junior Isabel Petri Bere and freshman Caroline Hinshaw set the tone for the Huskies in the first match of the day, defeating sophomore Debby Mastrodima and freshman Mia Palladino 6-0. In match No. 2, juniors Olivia Wright and Maria Constantinou kept the wins rolling for Connecticut, getting the better of sophomore Kristi Boro and freshman Elena Lobo-Corral, 6-3.
After snatching up all the doubles points, the Huskies kept the wins coming in singles play. They rattled off four straight wins to push their lead, only dropping the last two on their way to victory. Petri Bere and Hinshaw each won their matches in straight sets. Petri Bere won against Boro without dropping a single game (6-0, 6-0) and Hinshaw defeated Perfiliev 6-3, 6-0.
Every other singles match in this one ended up going to a tiebreaker set, starting with Wright versus Palladino. Palladino won the first tightly contested set 7-5, but Wright bounced back with 6-2 and 6-3 wins to win the match. Up next was Constantinou who took on Lobo-Coral. Constantinou secured the first set by a score of 6-2, but Lobo-Coral came roaring back with a 6-4 result in her favor. In the tiebreaker, Constantinou was in the driver’s seat the whole time and won 6-3.
The Seawolves of Stony Brook weren’t looking to be shutout, so Mastrodima and Bruu-Syversen made sure to grab some wins in the last two matches of the day. Mastrodima got the first win for Stony Brook against freshman Victoria Matos with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 score. In the last matchup, Bruu-Syversen and Asenov had one of the closest matches for either team in the entire season. The first set was a back-and-forth affair, but it went Asenov’s way 6-7 (5-7). Bruu-Syvers showed great resilience in the second set with a 7-5 win but set three was the real nailbiter. It took 10 wins to decide a winner in the tiebreaker set and Bruu-Syversen stepped up to the challenge with a 10-8 victory.
Rutgers Results
As has been the story all year for UConn, they started off by securing the doubles point in this matchup. They won the first two matches and were on their way to a third thanks again to the pairings of Constantinou/Wright and Petri Bere/Hinshaw. Both matches finished with a score of 6-3 and the unfinished third match ended 5-3 with Asenov and Toskova leading. After dominating doubles play, UConn came out swinging in singles. Wright added to her team’s best wins total, defeating junior Jackeline Lopez in straight sets (6-0, 6-2) for overall win No. 19 on the year. After that big win, however, things began to get worse for the Huskies. Next up, junior Minchae Kim and senior Daira Cardenas beat Hinshaw and Asenov, respectively, in straight sets (6-2, 7-5, and 6-4, 6-2). Sophomore Mai Nguyen defeated Petri Bere in a match that had to go to three sets. That matchup finished 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 6-3, dropping Petri Bere’s team-leading singles record to 16-6. In another game that needed a tiebreaker set, freshman Naomi Karki outlasted sophomore Cameron Didion by a score of 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 6-3. Lastly, Senior Amira Badawi defeated Constantinou in another three-set thriller that finished with a score of 3-6, 7-5, 7-5. After starting winless through three matches, Rutgers came storming back and won all five remaining singles matches to snatch the victory away from the Huskies. That leaves Connecticut with a 5-3 record heading into their next matchup.
Up Next
UConn will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 23 as they travel to Chicago, IL for a Big East matchup against DePaul.