Women's tennis shows domination in New England championship title

10/17/08 - For the third consecutive year, the University of Rhode Island tennis team has won the New England championship tournament."I was hoping we'd win, but wasn't expecting that kind of domination," said head coach Sandy Wood. "We won all of our tight matches."

This past weekend, the women's tennis team (4-0) took part in an eight-team tournament. The other squads that competed were Providence College, Bryant University, Sacred Heart University, Merrimack College, Fairfield University, University of Hartford and the College of Holy Cross.

This tournament featured six singles tournaments and three doubles tournaments. Each tournament had three rounds of regular matches. The Rams took all six of the singles tournaments with ease, winning with a record of 36-1 in all sets.

The doubles team showed the same success, making it to the finals in all three tournaments and winning two of them.

"We really showed that our kids can play up to their potential," Wood said.

Freshman Pam Emery won in the first round, defeating her opponent 6-1. She continued her success in the second round, winning 6-2, 6-3. In the final round, Emery ran into a formidable opponent in Dana Postupack (Fairfield). Emery won the first set 6-4, and was played to a tiebreaker in the second set, in which she won 7-3.

Freshman Tristany Leikem played in Flight No.2 of the tournament. She pounded her first opponent 6-0, 6-2. In the second round she won the first set, but proceeded to lose the following set. She came right back to win the deciding third set 6-0. Leikem had no problem handling Julianne Kasinow (Sacred Heart) in the final round, earning a 6-0, 6-2 victory.

Freshman Kirsten Leikem played strong to win her tournament in straight sets in the third flight. Sophomore Christen Cadigan showed complete domination of Flight No. 4, outscoring her opponents and winning 36 games to three in straight sets.

Junior Amanda Barletta and sophomore Brooke Hoover played in flights five and six respectively for the Rams, neither giving up a set to their opponents.

"They have been working super hard at practice, and the focus is still there," Wood said. "We will continue to train and try and move our way up."

Tristany and Kirsten Leikem paired up to win the first of three doubles flights. In round one they played their way to an 8-2 victory, followed by an 8-3 victory in round two. They played well in the finals to defeat Fairfield 8-5.

Barletta and Emery worked together to win matches one (8-2) and two (8-4) in the second doubles flight. They played back and forth with Fairfield to the point of a tiebreaker, in which they won 7-4.

Seniors Valerie Chacon and Grace Hedstrom breezed their way through the first two rounds of the third leg, winning their matches 8-4 and 8-0. They lost in the finals against Sacred Heart, 8-6.

The Rams look to continue their undefeated season this Sunday against Monmouth University (3-7).

"The second half of our season will be more difficult, but with the way we are playing, things are really looking up," Wood said.