The Villanova men’s tennis team was swept in all six singles matches and the doubles point by Delaware on Friday. Although it didn’t win a single match, one team member did make it to the third set. Sophomore Justin Suarez gave Villanova its only set win of the day, winning the first set of his match in a tiebreaker, before losing the next two. 

The women’s team lost in a narrow 4-3 match to Delaware on Sunday but were able to take victories in the number one doubles match, thanks to Lexi DeNucci and Annalise Klopfer and the number two (Claudia Althans), number four (Emily Strande) and number five (Caitlin Fisher) singles matches.

On the men’s side, it was their first tournament in almost a year.

“Obviously this was not the result our guys were looking for today, but it was extremely refreshing to get a match in for the first time in 11 months,” coach Brad Adams said. 

Freshman Anthony Prokurat got to play in his first ever match in a Wildcat uniform. He played in the number two doubles match with Sophomore Daniel Cheng and the number four singles match. Adams could tell his guys “were a little nervous when they stepped on the court, but they competed hard and it was the first step to knocking a lot of rust off the wheels.” 

It was also known that Villanova would be a bit short-handed with a lot of kids out. 

“We were short-handed with multiple players out, but I was very pleased with how those that haven’t typically played within the lineup performed and competed,” Adams said.

On the women’s side, they were very close to winning, but fell just short. In the doubles matches, Villanova was able to take one of the three matches after DeNucci and Klopfer, 6-4. In singles, the women came out and played their hearts out. Claudia Althans got her 40th career singles victory with a 6-3, 6-4 two set sweep of Delaware’s Isabella Montana. While DeNucci and Klopfer both lost their singles matches, Strande and Fisher came through and won both of theirs. Strande defeated Julietta Honrubia in three sets. She lost the first one 0-6, before coming back and winning the next two 6-3, 6-4. Fisher also defeated Sarah Whited in three sets. She won the first 6-1, lost the second in a tiebreaker 6-7, then won the third in a tiebreaker, 7-6. Olivia Kapp could not pull off the victory but was able to win the first set of her match, before losing the next two. These were the first matches for the women in a year as well, and just like the men, they had to overcome a bit of rust to come back to put up a good fight in the first match of the year. 

The men’s team will travel to Annapolis, MD to face Navy in hopes of regaining some confidence after this week’s match. They will play next Saturday in what will be Navy’s second game of the year. Coach Adams is excited and said, 

“We look forward to using our practice time over the next week and making sure we are improving every day,” Adams said.

The women don’t play again until they travel a short distance into Philadelphia to take on Drexel on March 6. They will be looking to make a comeback after barely losing to a good Delaware team next week. It will be Drexel’s second match of the year as well.