SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's tennis team turned in a weekend to remember at the ITA Northeast Regional Championship, held over the course of three days at host Skidmore College. The Engineers were led by a historic title run from
Anushka Jaiswal and
Nicole Ridenour, who captured the program's first-ever ITA Northeast Regional doubles championship, while
Kaaviya Kannan delivered a deep singles run into the tournament semifinals.
Jaiswal and Ridenour dropped the first three games of the doubles final before rallying to win the next eight and defeat Skidmore's Ginevra Muratori and Amelie Gonzalez, 8–3. The comeback victory capped an impressive run through the draw that included a dominant 8–0 win over another Skidmore tandem in the second round, a quarterfinal triumph over top-seeded TCNJ (8–2), and a hard-fought 8–6 semifinal win over NYU. With the title, the duo qualifies for the ITA Cup National Championship in October.
In singles, Kannan emerged as one of the tournament's top performers. She won four straight matches, opening with a 7–5, 6–0 win over Bard's Maria Castro before knocking out NYU's Norah Staunton and Ithaca's Alys Pop in back-to-back rounds. Kannan reached the semifinals after defeating Skidmore's Ellie Lake 6–2, 6–3, eventually falling to Muratori, who went on to win the singles title.
Juliette Ceas,
Gauri Muliyil,
Victoria Sarabosing, and Ridenour each earned victories in their respective opening singles matches. Ceas defeated NYU's Aditi Narayan 6–0, 6–2 before bowing out to Kira Kronenberg (RIT) in the second round. Muliyil posted a straight-set win over St. Lawrence's Ariane Karera before a narrow loss to Skidmore's Lake. Sarabosing edged Rochester's Jasmin Toon in two sets before falling 8–7 (7–3) to Maya McDaniel of RIT and Ridenour came back from a set down to outlast William Smith's Haley Levine 2–6, 6–2, 10–6 prior to being dealt an 8-6 defeat from Siona Vallabhaneni (NYU). Wheeler was on the wrong end of a tight three-set battle to Skidmore's Mia Sarzynska in the opening round.
Additional doubles action saw Ceas and Kannan fall in a close opening-round match to NYU's Sophia Yang and Victoria Wang (8–6), while the team of
Taylor Chandler and Wheeler claimed an 8–4 win over Hamilton's Mona Farah and Hannah Walpole before suffering an 8–6 setback to the eventual runners-up from Skidmore.
The Engineers will now prepare for a Tuesday dual match against Liberty League foe Bard.
