The Roger Williams University women’s tennis team defeated the Colby-Sawyer Chargers 6-3 on Sunday afternoon in the chilly wind to round out their 2023–24 campaign. Sophomore Izzy Pecora and freshman Ella Mancini, paired at No. 3 doubles, won 8-2. Meanwhile, junior Gianna Ferraro and graduate student Alessia Cahoon won 8-3 at No. 1 doubles. Olivia Santoro and Kate Hardy won 8–5 at No. 2 pairs to complete the doubles sweep. Mancini won 6-1, 6-0 to wrap up an unbeaten singles campaign. She is the first to finish a 20-0 flawless season at RWU.
“I think my partner Liv and I did really well adjusting to our opponents and figuring out what their strengths were and then adjusting our game to best fit how we could deal with them,” said Kate Hardy. She thought she had improved upon “consistency getting the ball on the court, and being able to play out the point more, and patience to be able to play longer points” from last season.
Kate is a senior captain from Southington, Connecticut and is majoring in elementary education. She has played at Roger Williams all four years, and this was her last match as a senior. She only played doubles this season and won all her matches in her final year of college, most of the time with her partner Olivia Santoro. Kate also plans to play next year as a graduate student after losing one tennis season to Covid.
Kate said her strategy going into the match was “consistency at first, and then see what our opponents are doing well. Then trying to stop whatever they were doing and keeping the ball on the court. Also playing aggressively at the net and poaching whenever we could.” She adds how important it is to have chemistry with your partner, “if you can play well with your partner, you guys can talk in the middle of points, can read what each other is going to do, and can move well together.”
Olivia Santoro, also a senior captain, is from Cheshire, Connecticut and is majoring in psychology. She played singles and doubles, going 16-4 for singles and 14-5 for doubles in the 2023-2024 season. Although Kate is not always her doubles partner, they played their freshman year together and got to play with each other in their last doubles matches. In her singles match Olivia won 6-0, 6-0 to seal the victory for the Hawks at No. 5 singles.
Olivia adds, “I think we finished the points fast and consistent. It was super fun to play with Kate because we played our freshman year, so it was nice to end up together. Having chemistry in a doubles match is super important. I love playing with Kate. We always have the best time, and we can get super competitive too. So, it was an awesome day.”
Congratulations to the seniors and all their hard work. The RWU women’s tennis team calls it a season going 14-6, 4-2 CCC (Commonwealth Coast Conference).
