February break brought the women’s tennis team to California to play the west coast teams Caltech and the University of Redlands. While the change of scenery did not help the Judges, Anastasia Sia ’25 added to her individual season results achieving a season record of 3-2 in singles so far. Her fellow first year Bhakti Parwani ’25 added two singles wins at first singles with a 2-1 record in the event.
Against Caltech, Parwani took the only win for Brandeis in singles at number one. After losing the first set 1-6, she fought through two tight sets winning both 6-4. Doubles proved no easier. She and Sabrina Loui ’25 served one of two doubles wins, pulling it out in a tie-breaker to win 8-7 (7-5). Winning two points for Brandeis, Parwani was joined in the win column by Ella Subramanian ’24 and Ana Hatfield ’22 who won second doubles 8-3. Both of these teams have proven to be powerful doubles pairings. In the six times they’ve been partners this season, Parwani and Loui have lost only one match against Tufts in Oct. The latter pair have lost only one doubles match playing in the first position against MIT.
In a spring season that started with a limited team due to the pandemic, the eccentricity continued as their match against the University of Redlands (UR) played a reduced match due to weather concerns. According to this rule, they played until the first team reached five wins and played first to six in the doubles matches instead of the normal proset, first to eight. This rule falls under the Division 1 policy and makes play go faster. Though the score was 5-2 before play was stopped, the head-to-head was very close. By the time UR won their fifth match, Brandeis was ahead in the third doubles match 5-2. The matches at third and fourth singles went the distance as Nikita Salkar ’24 and Loui both made it to third sets in their matches before losing. The two wins for Brandeis came at the hands of Parwani and Sia in first and sixth singles respectively.
With their season record now as 1-4, the Brandeis Women’s Tennis team has been very busy over the last couple of weeks. Going 1-1 in at home matches so far this season, the Judges showed strong performances by Sia and Subramanian, who came off a close loss in her match against Bryant
In the season home opener against MIT on Feb. 11 Brandeis fell 1-8, but not before Sia showed her resolve at sixth singles. Losing the first set 2-6, she brought Brandeis their sole win winning the next set 6-4 and going on to win the tie-breaker handily 10-1. She went on to a close second doubles match playing with Sabrina Loui ‘25 before losing in a tie-breaker 7-8 (2-7).
Shaking off their defeat to MIT, the team followed it up two days later on Feb. 13 with a win against Wellesley at Brandeis 8-1. Losing only at second singles, the Judges dropped only one other set at fifth singles where Subramanian continued the fighting spirit from her match at Bryant on Feb. 5 with a close win. After dropping the first set 3-6, she eked out the next set 7-5 to take the tie-breaker 10-4. Subramanian along with Loui, Parwani and Salkar won in both singles and doubles showing the depth of this team.
Back on the east coast, the team is scheduled to play their next match at Wheaton on March 5.
