A pair of women's tennis player made program history today by becoming the first Violets to ever represent New York University at the NCAA Individual Championships.

After the team qualified for the NCAA Team Championship for the first time in school history, the duo of Ida Krause and Dakota Fordham were also selected to compete at the individual tournament.

As a team, the Violets fell to Kenyon College in the Second Round of the NCAA's on May 5, but the dynamic duo began play in the individual competition on Friday, May 19, at the USTA National Training Center in Orlando, FL.  

Krause opened the day playing singles against Audrey Yoon of Claremont Mudd Scripps. In a tight match throughout, Krause fell 7-5 in the first set and was nipped in a second-set tiebreaker 7-6.

"Obviously it was a very close match, both playing a very similar style and putting pressure on their opponent through their consistency," explained Head Coach Horace Choy. "Ida's opponent made a few more balls when the moment counted and that was the difference. At this level, there isn't much separating players. While not the way Ida wanted to end her season in singles, it shouldn't take away from the history that she created and helped create. Definitely a great season and one that she should be proud of." 

Krause returned to the court several hours later with Fordham for their doubles match against Jessica Lu and Sarah Pertsemlidis of MIT.

Once again it was a tight one, but this time NYU came out on top as the Violet duo came away with a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

"They got the job done," Choy said. "It wasn't their best tennis, but they played well when they had to and came through in a close match. They know that they will need to step it up in the next round and I expect them to do just that."

Krause and Fordham are now scheduled to play their quarterfinal match against Lauren Rha and Nina Ye of Pomona-Pitzer at 1:00pm on Saturday.