Following last weekend’s Midwest split against South Dakota and Creighton, the UConn women’s tennis team hits the road again for a weekend matchup against Xavier and Eastern Kentucky. The Huskies are coming off the heels of a matchup where they swept their doubles matchup and won five out of their six singles matchups.
Of course, Maria Constantinou’s performance will be crucial for the Huskies’ success this weekend. The senior, by way of Cyprus, is coming off an excellent weekend where she won both her singles and doubles matchup. Constantinou has been a catalyst of success for the program throughout her career in Storrs. She has been exceptionally lethal in doubles, leading the program in doubles wins in her sophomore season and winning on eight occasions last season. This is all the more crucial considering that Xavier struggled a week ago against Ball State in doubles. This is where the Huskies can pull away.
Abby Nugent and Clara Owen won their doubles matchup for the Musketeers a week ago. However, Madeleine Rexroat, Natalie Smitek, Emily Pendergast and Elizabeth Pendergast struggled a week ago, with both teams losing their respective matchups. However, Rexroat and Smitek’s games came down to the wire. Coming down to the final set, the duo lost the match 7-6 in nail biting fashion. Look for how the duo responds this weekend, as winning here could get the Musketeers back on track for this Big East season.
After facing Xavier, the Huskies will make the trek to Eastern Kentucky to take on the Colonels. Eastern Kentucky comes into Saturday with a less than ideal 6-9 record. However, the program is as good as any when it comes to performing in front of the home crowd, owning a 5-1 record in “The Bluegrass State.” A large part of the success of the program has centered around Marilou Cote, who is on a three-game winning streak and owns a solid 8-5 record in singles. As a “2,” she is a perfect 3-0, effectively neutralizing the opposition’s second best player. However, the Canadian has struggled to get it going regarding doubles, owning a 2-9 record overall. Considering how strong the Huskies have consistently performed in this area, this is a point that UConn will want to exploit and try to gain an advantage from.
Connecticut has had an excellent season up to this point, owning a 7-2 record overall. With nearly half of the year left to play, UConn is in excellent shape to challenge the Big East as the program to beat, and stacking up crucial road wins is a necessary condition for making this happen. The program lost for only the second time all year long last weekend and has an ample opportunity on Friday and Saturday to put these losses behind them. However, no matter what happens away from Storrs this weekend, one thing is sure: the program is headed for big places. This weekend is expected to be yet another UConn coronation, as Connecticut is on the cusp of putting together a historic season that will be remembered for a long time.