After having won titles at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Regionals in September, a trio of New York University women's tennis players qualified for competition at the ITA Cup, which began on Thursday, October 12, in Rome, GA.

Jimena Menendez represented NYU in singles, while Dakota Fordham and Isabella Hartman paired up in doubles.     

Menendez began the day's proceedings with a match against Ana Cristina Perez of Emory University. 

Things started out well for the NYU junior, who took the first set 6-4. However, Menendez was unable to close the deal, falling 6-2 and 6-3 in the next two sets

"It was a tough match. Jimena played well and had some opportunities to pull it out," said Head Coach Horace Choy. "Not a lot separated the players, which was reflected in the score. I'm disappointed for Jimena because she has played so well all fall and worked so hard."  

Menendez will continue on with a match against Cassidy Binder of Pacific University on Friday.

"Jimena will have to bounce back for tomorrow's match, but nothing that happened today should take away from how well she has played and what she has accomplished," Choy added.  

In doubles, Hartman and Fordham fell to Emily Kantrovitz and Ana Cristina Perez of University Athletic Association (UAA) rival Emory University, 7-5, 6-1.

"I thought we started out the match well with good aggression putting the other team on their heels," Choy said of the doubles contest. "The first set was back and forth with the difference being that the other team was consistently aggressive. We had a let down after the first set and the other team capitalized. It was a good match that was closer than the score indicated." 

The Violet duo will now face Sydnie and Cassidy Binder from Pacific University  on Friday at 5:30 p.m.