BOSTON, Mass.—UMass Boston women's tennis opened their 2021 campaign in a huge way, as the Beacons swept conference foe Western Connecticut State 9-0 on Saturday afternoon at the B.C. High Tennis Court.  

THE BASICS 

UMass Boston 9, Western Connecticut State University 

(UMass Boston 1-0, Little East 1-0) 

(Western Connecticut State 0-3, Little East 0-1)  

HOW IT HAPPENED 

The Beacons swept at five of the seven spots that were contested on Saturday to make a winner out of first-year head coach Harshana Godamanna ('13) in his head coaching debut. Four of the five Beacons who appeared in Saturday's match picked up their first collegiate victories as well.  

Sophomores Lydia Chan (Quincy, Mass.) and Meagan Carney (Arlington, Mass.), freshman Elena Albano (Haverhill, Mass.) and senior Meaghan Moriarty (Norton, Mass.) all finished 2-0 in the Beacons' season opener.  

UMass Boston opened the match with 2-0 lead to begin, as WestConn only had five available players and were forced to forfeit at third doubles and sixth singles.  

The Beacons extended their lead to 3-0 when Albano and Moriarty finished off an 8-0 sweep at number two doubles.  

UMass Boston made it 4-0 with a much tighter win at first doubles. Chan and Carney fell behind 3-0 early, only to race back to take a 5-4 lead. The Beacons battled back and forth with Melanie Grasso and Diana Rebelo before earning an 8-5 doubles victory. 

The Beacons kept the momentum going into singles as they won four of the five matches by 6-0, 6-0 scores.  

Carney clinched the match victory for the Beacons at second singles, as she blanked Rebelo 6-0, 6-0.  

Moriarty defeated Brooke Stillman 6-0, 6-0 at fifth singles to make it 6-0 UMass Boston.  

Albano was the next to finish her match, as the freshman downed Maria Madden 6-0, 6-0 at third singles.  

At fourth singles, sophomore Arina Bakradze (Yaroslavl, Russia) earned a 6-0, 6-0 sweep of Mackenzie Riofrio.  

In the closest singles match of the day, Chan defeated Grasso 6-3, 6-4 at number one singles to cap off the Beacons' 9-0 sweep.  

BY THE NUMBERS 

• Saturday's match was the first match for the program since the 2019 Little East Conference Women's Tennis Championship Match. It had been 692 days between matches.  
• Godamanna picked up his first win as head coach in his first match as a head coach. He served as an assistant with the program from 2011-12.  
• Moriarty was the lone returner from the 2019 team to play in the match. The other four Beacons were all making their collegiate debut.  
• Albano and Moriarty each won all 20 games they played on Saturday.  
• The Beacons have won 10 matches in a row over WestConn. They improved to 11-8 all-time against their conference foes.  

WHO'S NEXT  

UMass Boston will begin a seven-match road trip on Wednesday, when they travel to take on Husson University at 3 p.m.