Women's Tennis Heads to AIC for Wednesday Afternoon Match

GAME DAY INFORMATION

DATE: April 14, 2021

LOCATION: Forest Park Tennis Courts
Springfield, Mass.

GAME DAY LINKS


NEWS	NEWS
ROSTER	ROSTER
SCHEDULE	SCHEDULE
STATS

THE LEAD
The New Haven women's tennis team returns to action Wednesday afternoon traveling to Springfield, Mass. for a second meeting this season with American International College. First serve is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. with post-game stats available at newhavenchargers.com at the conclusion of the match.

RECENT HISTORY VS AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL
Earlier this season, the Chargers took the first meeting between the two sides with a 7-0 sweep over AIC at the New Haven Tennis Courts on Apr. 3. In 13 matches against the Yellow Jackets prior to this season, the Blue and Gold hold a staggering advantage, winning the last two matches in 7-0 sweeps, and only conceding one match since joining the NE10 in 2008, falling 5-4 to AIC back in the 2015 season.

SCOUTING THE CHARGERS
Graduate Ivana Andric (Griesheim, Germany) continues to top the stat sheet earning a pair of victories in Sunday's loss to Le Moyne College. Andric's wins came at both the top doubles and singles positions, with the dual victory coming alongside senior Stephanie Gonzalez (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico/Academia Maria Reina) who improve to 6-3 overall this season. Behind her is senior Lilia Rodriguez (Bayamon, Puerto Rico/Colegio Marista) who enters Wednesday with four singles wins on the season, in addition to a pair of doubles victories with sophomore Alexa Orlando (Frederick, Md./Middletown).

SCOUTING THE YELLOW JACKETS
Wednesday's match against New Haven serves as the regular season finale for AIC as the visitors are still in search of their first win of the year. The Yellow Jackets were able to take a point in their match against Le Moyne, and three points in their meeting with Bentley, nearly earning their first win of the year. In the near win against Bentley, the Yellow Jackets took victories at first, second and third singles but with a short roster succumbed to the Falcons after suffering a 6-3, 6-0 loss at fourth singles.

CHARGERS RANKED IN SEASON'S FIRST REGIONAL POLL
As announced by the International Tennis Association (ITA), the Blue and Gold enter the season ranked ninth in the season's initial regional poll. The poll, sponsored by Oracle, is voted on by coaches in the region, with the results used to determine a national top 25, both of which are administered and released weekly by the ITA. The Chargers join four other schools from the Northeast-10 in the top-10 that also includes schools from the East Coast Conference (ECC) and the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference.

THE 2021 SCHEDULE
After this weekend, the Chargers have a pair of matches remaining in their 11-match regular season schedule for 2021, including a pair against Adelphi, however dates and times continue to change. Visit NewHavenChargers.com for the latest schedule updates. Due to the ongoing constraints of the CoVID-19 Pandemic, the NE10 adopted a 10-match conference slate which was designed to address interstate travel restrictions throughout the NE10 footprint. As part of that conference slate, the Chargers will play multiple matches against three teams; Adelphi (3 matches), Le Moyne (2 matches) and American International (2 matches).

CHARGERS FIFTH IN PRESEASON POLL
In a poll of the conference's 11 head coaches, the New Haven women's tennis team was selected to finish fifth in the Northeast-10. Adelphi received 109 points and nine of the 11 possible first place votes to take the top spot followed by Stonehill who finished just nine points behind while garnering the remaining two first place tallies. Overall, just 18 points separated the top three spots in the poll with Southern New Hampshire coming in at third overall with 91 points. Just ahead of the Chargers in fourth place was Le Moyne with 85 points, while New Haven finished with 70. Following the Blue and Gold was Franklin Pierce (66 points) in sixth place, Bentley (53) in seventh place and Assumption (50) rounding out the top-eight. Saint Anselm (37), Saint Michael's (31) and American International (23) round out the full poll.

PUSHING TOWARDS THE POSTSEASON
Due to the constraints of the CoVID-19 Pandemic, all 11 teams in the Northeast-10 will make the conference tournament this year, with the top five teams earning a first round bye. Seeds six through 11 will play in the first round of the tournament Sunday, Apr. 25 with the higher seed hosting that match. Currently New Haven sits sixth in the conference with a 3-4 record in NE10 play this season with two games left to play after Wednesday.

UP NEXT
Following Wednesday's meeting with AIC, the Chargers will return to action Monday, Apr. 19 for the first of two straight matches against Adelphi University to close the regular season. First serve against the Panthers is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. with results available on newhavenchargers.com following the conclusion of the match.

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Players Mentioned

Stephanie Gonzalez: 5' 2"; Senior

Alexa Orlando: 5' 1"; Sophomore

Lilia Rodriguez: 5' 3"; Senior

Ivana Andric: 5' 3"; Graduate Student

Players Mentioned

Stephanie Gonzalez
: 5' 2"; Senior

Alexa Orlando
: 5' 1"; Sophomore

Lilia Rodriguez
: 5' 3"; Senior

Ivana Andric
: 5' 3"; Graduate Student