Women’s Tennis Wins Two to Open First Season Under New Coach

The Fordham women's tennis team opened up second semester play last week with matches against the Fairfield Stags on Saturday, Jan. 28 and the Albany Great Danes on Saturday, Feb. 4.

Playing at the Stamford Indoor Courts, Fordham was able to defeat Fairfield by a score of 5-2. The highlight of the match came right from the onset, as the Rams swept all three doubles matches.

Junior Amy Simidian and sophomore Angelika Dabu opened the match by defeating Fairfield sophomores Sharissa Ryan and Monica Yajima 8-4.

The strong start continued in the second doubles match, as freshmen Bella Genkina and Sarah Ali defeated Fairfield's freshman/sophomore tandem of Allison Radde and Victoria Pirrello, 8-6.

The doubles dominance was concluded when Fordham sophomore Hanna Fritzinger and freshman Julie Leong won 8-1 against junior Nikki Jackson and freshman Emma Samson of the Stags.

After dropping the first two singles matches, the Rams got wins by Dabu, Genkina, Leong and Fritzinger in the final four singles matches.

Fordham improved their record to 6-0 on the season after defeating Albany 6-1 this past Saturday. The team started off strong once again, winning the first two doubles matches of the day.

Simidian and Dabu defeated senior Livia Gherman and sophomore Rocio Lopez of the Great Danes 8-5 in the first doubles match, and then Ali and Genkina were victorious over the freshmen tandem of Kirsten Scott and Cheryl Kukkonen in the following match.

Two come-from-behind victories sealed the win for the Rams in singles play. While Simidian (6-3, 6-4), Ali (7-5, 6-3) and Fritzinger (6-4, 6-2) all won in straight sets, Dabu and Leong needed to work a little harder to get the win.

After dropping the opening set to Kukkonen 4-6, Dabu rallied in the second set for a 7-5 win. In the tie-breaking third set, Dabu edged Kukkonen 10-7, giving Fordham the point at third singles.

Leong lost the opening set at fifth singles, 2-6, to Iannone. After the disappointing first set, Leong dominated the second set with a 6-1 win. In the deciding third set, Leong posted another dominating win, this time by a score of 6-2.

First year Head Coach Bette-Ann Speliotis Liguroi must be pleased with the way her team has begun the spring semester.

Ligouri is no rookie when it comes to success in tennis; she received the 1982 Claire Hobbs Memorial Award as female athlete of the year and was a Fordham Athletics Hall of Fame inductee in 2003.

Coach Ligouri and the Rams look to remain undefeated this season when they play again on Friday, Feb. 10 against the Richmond Spiders at the University of Pennsylvania.