In a Conference of New England (CNE) match on Tuesday afternoon in the chilly wind, the Roger Williams University Women’s Tennis Team (8-2, 2-1 CNE) defeated Gordon College 5-2.
RWU scored the point from doubles play to win the match’s doubles phase.
At No. 2 doubles, junior Izzy Pecora and sophomore Ella Mancini beat the Fighting Scots 6-3 to claim their first victory. At No. 3 doubles, senior Gracie McCarthy and junior Gabrielle Petroniro won 6-3 to secure the decisive victory. At No. 1 doubles, senior Gianna Ferraro and freshman Valentina Abarca won 7-6.
“I think I kept focus really well today. I’ve worked to improve my first serve percentage and stay aggressive when hitting my shots”, said Petroniro.
Petroniro commented on her strategy going into the match: “I really wanted to work on my ball placement whether that was serving the T or out wide and working on my put away shots like my down the line and cross court forehands.” Gabby is from Wolcott, Connecticut and is majoring in finance.
Petroniro also credited the win to her strong bond with her doubles partner.
“Chemistry in doubles is so important. I really enjoy working with my partner, Gracie, since I’ve known her since last year. We also can lift each other up when one isn’t playing their best and have fun, but having chemistry makes it a better environment on the court in my opinion because then we know how each other operate,” Petroniro said.
Petroniro’s partner, Gracie McCarthy, also commented on their teamwork in the match. “Something me and Gabby, my partner, did really well was not giving up, we were down a couple of games, and we didn’t let it get to us,” McCarthy said. “We stayed competitive, focused, and didn’t get down on ourselves. We always support the rest of the team, cheering them on, and staying high-energized,” she added. McCarthy is a senior captain from Marion, Massachusetts and is majoring in public relations.
McCarthy remarked also on her areas of improvement from the previous season saying, “I want to continue to stay consistent, but also put away balls that I’m able to. I feel like I am more comfortable at the net this year trying to poach a ton of balls.” McCarthy claimed that her approach to today’s game was: “noticing the weakness in our opponents, we saw there was a weaker player in our doubles match, so we targeted her, and we used lobs to our advantage and changed up the pace they were playing.”
In the singles matches, Gianna Ferraro won 6-2, and the Hawks led 3-0 after sophomore Adriana Palmieri prevailed 6-4 at No. 5 singles. Ella Mancini then completed the match by defeating Gordon 6-2 in the deciding set and Valentina Abarca won the No. 3 singles match 6-4.
Ferraro said, “I think I did really well with being consistent and just trying to get the ball in and picking the right time to try and hit the ball really hard because the wind was kind of crazy today.” She commented on the parts of her game that she worked to improve upon from last season, “definitely my backhand and serves, I worked on that a lot this summer, and it really has improved for this season so I’m very happy about that.” Ferraro is a senior captain from Westerly, Rhode Island majoring in public relations and won both of her singles and doubles matches of the day.
The Hawks won their following matches against Salve Regina University on October 2, but were unfortunately unsuccessful in their most recent match against RWU’s rival, Endicott College on October 5.
The women’s current record is 9-3 overall and 2-2 in the conference. The team only has two more matches left in the regular season, traveling to Curry College on October 8 and hosting Western New England University on October 9.
