Huskies fall season comes to a close at Northeast Regional Championships

In a disappointing weekend, the UConn women’s tennis team brings their fall season to a close with only one win in the Northeast Regional Championships.

The Huskies traveled to the Army academy’s campus in West Point, N.Y. for their final tournament of the season, the Northeast Regional Championships. After just coming off a significant loss against UMass in a dual match hosted on the UConn Tennis Courts, the women were hoping to end their season on a strong note at the Regional Championships. Unfortunately, the five members of the team that made the trek walked away with only one win.

The tournament offered both open and qualified singles brackets, giving the Huskies three opportunities to compete. In the open singles bracket, sophomore Maxie Weinberg received a bye in her first round, automatically advancing to the Round of 64. In the second round of competition, Weinberg was slated to compete against Lauren Davis of Boston University. Davis went on to win the match, defeating Weinberg 6-3, 6-0.

In the qualified singles bracket, the Huskies walked away without a win, seeing both of their competitors in the bracket fall in the first round. Freshman Srna Stoŝljević was matched up with Crystal Yen of Harvard in the first round. Yen swiftly defeated Stoŝljević 6-1, 6-2. Junior Jennifer Learmonth competed against Kasia Jania of UPenn, who went on to defeat Learmonth without giving up a single set 6-0, 6-0.

In open doubles, the Huskies saw some success but were not able to advance deep into the tournament. The tandem of senior Abby McKeon and Learmonth was matched up with Caroline Koladzyn and Monica Yajima of Fairfield. In a fight to the finish, McKeon and Learmonth came out on top in a 9-7 victory. Advancing to the Round of 32, the pair was competed with Elizabeth Epstein and Hannah Yu of Yale. Epstein and Yu played the stronger match and bested McKeon and Learmonth in a quick 8-1 win.

UConn’s second tandem, composed of junior Lucy Nutting and Weinberg, was pitted against Nevena Selaković and Amber Washington of St. John’s. Selaković and Washington battled hard and defeated Nutting and Weinberg in an 8-4 win.

The fall season started out with signs of promise for the Huskies but ended with a much more sullen tone. The team saw some significant success early on at Quinnipiac and Army, but rain delays plagued the scheduling of the entire season. After three weeks off the court, the Huskies returned to play at the New England Championships, unable to defend last season’s victory and placed second.

“Consistency is a big thing [for the team to work on],” said Weinberg, reflecting on the fall season.

The slide continued through the next week in the team’s only dual match of the fall, against UMass, where they were swept in singles and doubles. Now, with the Huskies finishing off the season with a weak performance at the admittedly competitive Regional Championships, it will certainly give the team a lot to think about and work on over the winter hiatus before picking up their rackets again in the spring.

“We all have our good days and bad days,” said Learmonth. “But I think if we continue to work hard at the level that we’re working we can’t not improve.”

Overall, though, this fall season with its strong wins and tough losses certainly proved to be more than just a rainy affair for the Huskies.