Women's tennis closes fall season with promising performance at NEWITT invitational

The Tufts women’s tennis team concluded its fall season with two semifinal appearances at the New England Women’s Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament (NEWITT) held at Smith College.

Jumbos got the better of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Engineers in the first round of the A Draw, with first-year Tilly Rigby and sophomore Maggie Dorr defeating MIT duo of Seraphin Castelino and Yuka Perera 8–2. Rigby also went on to win her singles opener against Castelino in a fierce battle, edging out a 6–3, 4–6, 10–7 win. The pair fought valiantly before bowing down to Wesleyan in the semifinals.

Sophomore Nicole Frankel, who has been in sensational form this season, partnered with first-year Casey Cummings to emerge victorious in their first-round consolation match in the A bracket against Babson College. They eventually lost to MIT in the consolation semifinals.

In the B Draw, the team dominated MIT in the first round, winning all its respective sets. Tufts first-year Michelle Shub and first-year Kennedy May started things off with an impressive doubles win over MIT’s Sara Fernandez and Vanessa Kitova, closing out the match 8–5. Both followed suit by winning their respective singles matches in straight sets, with Shub winning 7–6 (4), 6–2 against Fernandez and May carving out a 6–4, 6–1 win over Kitova. In the semifinals, however, Middlebury got the better of Tufts, winning the match 2–1.

With the conclusion of the tournament, Tufts will take a hiatus from competition until the start of its spring season in March. Frankel spoke about the prospects of the spring regular season following the Jumbos' fall performance.

“I feel our team has a lot of potential heading into the main season in the spring,” Frankel said. “As a team, everybody is match tough and super excited. We have really good team chemistry, and everybody looks like they have a shot at winning matches.”

Reflecting on her own performance in this tournament and this season as a whole, Frankel observed an improvement in her game when compared to last year.

“I feel like I have been playing a lot better this year so far," Frankel said. "I lost a lot of close matches.”

Frankel was particularly impressed by how the players didn’t let the difficult weather conditions alter their level of play.

“The weather was really bad and the conditions weren’t great, but everyone played through and made the best of it,” she said.

With a four-month haul before spring season begins, Frankel feels fitness and match practice are the areas where the team should focus on the most during the offseason.

“Big time would be the ability to close out matches and just be able to hang in there," Frankel said. "We also need to work on getting more fit and get more match play.”

Sophomore Anna Lowy was particularly impressed with the maturity that the first-years have displayed this season and the strong dynamic the team shares.

“We’re a super young team with almost half the team filled with [first-years]. A lot of them have stepped up,” Lowy said. “Since we are a young team it falls a lot on us to organize our offseason. There is no captain, so everyone plays a really strong role in the team.”

Reflecting on the fall season, coach Kate Bayard was extremely happy with the eagerness and hardworking attitude that the players had shown.

“A big positive is that we got to play many of the top teams and players in the country,” Bayard said in an electronic message to the Daily. “We won some close matches and lost a fair amount of them too. It’s one thing to know that our level is close. The next step is what the team does with that as we head into the off-season and prepare for spring.”

Bayard also feels that competition and fitness are areas the team needs to work on.

“[The] team needs to get out there and play matches and continue to get tougher in competition in both singles and doubles," Bayard said. "We know we are up against the toughest in the country all spring and the other teams are working hard in the offseason.”

After a four-month layoff, the Jumbos will return to action on March 7 at Conn. College. They hope to make the most out of the offseason and come back stronger, fitter and better.