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Women’s Tennis Looks Ahead

“It’s been kind of a weird season.”

Those are the words of Boston University women’s tennis team assistant coach Chrissy Cerrantani. With a convincing 6-1 victory over Syracuse University last Saturday at the Sportsman’s Tennis Club in Dorchester, the team is looking to build off of its first win of the young spring season.

“We are all really proud of this team,” Cerrantani said. “This team plays with so much heart. Syracuse was a really big win for us, and it helped everyone get the lumps out.”

With the injury bug plaguing several of the Terriers, the win over Syracuse was not only welcome, but also necessary. Opening with losses to both Harvard and Yale, the Terriers swept the singles matches Saturday and lost only one doubles match to get rid of their goose-egg in the win column.

“The team goal is always to win the conference tournament and go to the NCAA, and with this win everyone is starting to get going and starting to play better,” Cerrantani said. “Harvard is a real solid team top to bottom, and with Yale we just weren’t back into it. We actually played better against Harvard. If we played the way we did against Harvard in our Yale matches, we probably would have won.”

This year the team is being led and captained by senior Christina Causway. She is BU’s top singles player and plays No. 1 doubles with sophomore Lindsey Dynof. Causway dismantled Syracuse’s top singles player, Masha Kabanova, 6-1, 6-1, and nearly pulled the upset the previous week against Harvard’s top player, dropping a third-set tiebreaker, 2-6, 6-2, 1-0 (9). She was the only Terrier to come away with a point in the team’s opening match against Yale, defeating the Bulldogs’ No. 1 singles player, Andrea Goldberg, 6-1, 7-6, 10-8.

But while Causway has stepped up her play for her final season, Cerrantani said the team in general will have to step up in order to make it to the NCAA tournament again. The Terriers are looking to depend on junior Alana Marcu, sophomores Elena deMendoza and Hannah Bartell, as well as freshman Silvia Guglielmi. Each of those players won her singles match Saturday, and Marcu and Bartell teamed up for a doubles victory.

“We are a real solid team if we’re healthy. This team plays with so much heart that if we play the rest of our season like we did against Syracuse we will be very tough down the stretch,” Cerrantani said.

With the off-season rust starting to come off and the injuries starting to heal, the coaching staff seemed confident in where the team stands right now. The staff is now working on the team’s fitness and conditioning in order to get the team ready for a string of matches to be held in Florida over Spring Break.

“We need the team to get fit and stronger so that we can stay healthier on the court. Playing down in Florida is very different than what we are used to. Down there we play outside under the hot sun, which is something that we haven’t done in a while,” Cerrantani said.

That Spring Break trip to Florida will match the Terriers against the likes of James Madison University, the University of Virginia, Richmond University and Florida Atlantic University.

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