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As you may already know, the UMass Boston women’s tennis team’s season came to an end on Thursday, Oct. 21, in the Little East Conference semifinals. UMass Boston fell to the undefeated Rhode Island College 5–0. Now, with the women’s tennis season in the rearview mirror, we can take a look at how the season ended, and what could be in store for the future.
The Beacons finished out the regular season with a 5–3 record against LEC teams and 6–4. That was good enough to earn them the fourth seed in the LEC.
Their first matchup in the LEC quarterfinals was against the fifth seeded UMass Dartmouth. UMass Boston played UMass Dartmouth earlier in the month, and the match ended by a very tight score of 5–4. UMass Boston took two out of three of the doubles matches along with taking three out of the six singles matches.
Now fast forward to the LEC quarterfinals, the Beacons did a much better job at taking care of business with a 5–1 victory over UMass Dartmouth. Once again, UMass Boston took two out of the three doubles matches. However, this time Meagan Carney, Lia Vassiliadis and Lydia Chan all took care of business in their singles matches to give UMass Boston the five victories they needed to move onto the semifinals.
Waiting in the semifinals was the first seeded Rhode Island College, who up to that point had yet to be defeated. UMass Boston faced off against Rhode Island in the last match of the season, where we saw Rhode Island sweep all nine matchups. In the three doubles matches, UMass Boston was defeated by a score of 8–0, 8–1 and once again 8–0. Rhode Island did not let up in the singles matches as they swept every matchup.
Things did not get any better for UMass Boston going into the semifinals, as they were once again swept by Rhode Island College. UMass Boston did put up much more of a fight in the doubles matchups, as the final scores were 8–6, 8–4 and 8–1. Unfortunately, Rhode Island only needed two more victories in the singles matches, and got those with relative ease, ultimately ending the season for the Beacons.
Rhode Island would go on to win the LEC championship very easily over Bridgewater State winning five games to one.
Looking ahead
It’s safe to say the Beacons’ future for women’s tennis is very bright. Unfortunately, UMass Boston will be losing one player in Meaghan Moriarty as she will be graduating, but that leaves a total of nine other players that will be able to get another year of experience. As of right now, UMass Boston will only have one senior next season in Lia Vassiliadis, and the rest will be a junior or younger. Having a team this young and still making it all the way to the conference semifinals really is a testament to how good the tennis program is here at UMass Boston.
Safe to say, it is only uphill from here for the UMass Boston women’s tennis team. I expect that the Beacons will take home the Little East Conference title within the next two seasons as long as they continue to develop. When all of the freshmen and sophomores become upperclassmen, UMass Boston will be a force to be reckoned with!