At this point, both the Men’s and Women’s Tennis teams are half way through their Spring season.
“Quite frankly, it’s been a pretty average season up to this point. Both teams have played well at times, but we haven’t been able to do it on a regular basis,” said coach Gary Glassman on his teams’ performance thus far.
The Women’s team started 0-6, but bounced back with wins in their last two matches to improve their record to 2-6. “The women have had a rough start and lost some very close matches,” said coach Glassman. “Of our 6 losses – 3 were by a 4-3 margin.”
Their first win came against Coastal Carolina, which was their third and final match in Florida during spring break. Before that match, they lost to Drake and Florida Gulf Coast each by a score of 4-3. “To beat Coastal Carolina after losing 2 extremely tough matches in a row was a huge accomplishment for the women.”
Their second and most recent victory came against Fordham, where they won 5-2. Sandy Wijeratne (Senior), Victoria Vovsha (Senior), and Fanny Charliquart (Freshman) each won both their singles and doubles match. “Sandy has been playing as well as anybody as of late,” said coach Glassman. “Fanny has improved more than any player on the squad since the start of the season.”
The Women’s team’s next match was supposed to be against Sacred Heart, on Tuesday, April 1st, but it was postponed due to rain. “Mother Nature has not been real kind to us lately,” said coach Glassman. He hopes the postponed match will be played some time next week.
Therefore their next match will be on Saturday, April 5th at 2:30 p.m., where they will host their first home match of the season, which will be against Albany. Coach Glassman believes the match will be close. He predicts it will be “a 4-3 or 5-2 type of match.” “Albany is a much improved squad, they definitely have something to prove this year,” said Glassman.
On the Men’s side, the team currently has a record of 4-5. Their last match was Friday, March 28th, at St. Johns, where they lost 7-0. “Against St John’s we competed pretty hard at most spots, but you can’t lose 4 three set matches and expect to beat a quality team.”
Their next match will be against Fairleigh Dickinson, on Thursday, April 3rd at 2:00 p.m., where they will host their first home match of the Spring season. The match was originally scheduled for March 27th, but was postponed due to the weather. “It should be a 4-3 match and it will depend on who plays best on the day,” said coach Glassman on the up-coming match.
Looking forward, coach Glassman had this to say about his teams’ future, “Both teams have the potential to compete for the conference championship at the end of the month. Ultimately, that is always our goal at the start of each season.”
