VESTAL, N.Y. - Binghamton women's tennis opens its spring season with a pair of road matches this weekend. The Bearcats play at Brown Saturday morning in Providence and then face Rutgers Sunday in New Brunswick, N.J. 

Binghamton is coming off a fall season that featured several outstanding individual performances in tournament play and three duals. Sophomore Natalia Aruj went 11-2 overall and captured flight titles at both the Navy and West Point Invitationals. She and freshman Loren Cuomo also reached the doubles Round of 16 at the ITA Northeast Regional. Junior Abby Ackroyd won four matches and captured a singles consolation   title at Navy.

Head coach Libby McGovern, in her 13th year, has been impressed with the team's depth and progress, especially given the roster has just one senior and seven underclassmen. 

Aruj and fourth-year starter Lara Kaplan will lock down the top of the lineup, where each is capable of producing wins. Sophomores Maria Pereira and Caterina Casadei give McGovern solid play in the middle spots. Ackroyd, Cuomo and freshmen Valeria Gonzalez and Bridget Martin will push for the final two singles spots. Sophomore Brielle DeRoberts is working her way back from injury and should be in the mix for competition soon.    

"We're lucky to have more depth going into this spring and having to compete for singles spots makes the entire team stronger," McGovern said. "We have a fairly young team with a big core of sophomores, and we're working to maintain a consistent level of play from game to game, set to set and match to match. We're focusing on getting a high volume of balls in play per point with purpose and thought and are still working toward thinking our way through situations and not just trying to out hit our opponents with power. We had a lot of success on the singles court this fall and I really want to build on that base to create confidence each time we walk on the court."

The team's depth and cohesiveness should show in its doubles pairings, giving McGovern some options. There were seven different pairings in the fall.  

"We have a lot of maneuverability within our doubles lineup with mixing and matching partners," McGovern added. "I'm really excited for our doubles play this spring as we made a lot of improvements and progress during the fall, with a lot more aggressiveness that was fun to coach and to watch. The increased aggressiveness also lead to a lot more competitive matches in doubles and overall more success as a program on the doubles court. I'm looking forward to continue to improve and strengthen our doubles game."

The Bearcats have 20 matches scheduled throughout the spring semester, including five at home.