After leaving the Mullins Courts unsatisfied following a 4-3 win over Connecticut, the Massachusetts women’s tennis team showed no signs of improvement as it was upended, 5-2, by Fordham on Sunday.

The Minutewomen traveled to The Bronx, N.Y. this weekend hoping to continue their historic success against the Rams. Dating back to 1998, UMass has held a 13-1 advantage over Fordham, with the lone Ram victory taking place at the 2002 Atlantic-10 Championships where the Minutewomen fell, 4-3, in the sixth place match.

Despite the good fortune for past teams, the 2011 version of the Maroon and White could not keep up with Fordham, which remains unbeaten at a perfect 4-0.

“We were simply outplayed,” said UMass coach Judy Dixon. “[Fordham] came out strong and wanted to beat us, and were just the better team on Sunday.”

“We were as prepared as we could be, we had the right lineup in, and everything looked good in warmups,” Dixon added. “I think they just played more loosely than we did, and were swinging more freely. We looked a little tight at some points in the match.”

The Minutewomen jumped out to an early lead after winning two out of three matches in the doubles portion.

The Rams struck with the duo of Amy Simidian and Sarah Ali overcoming Yuliana Motyl and Chantal Swiszcz, 8-6. UMass would respond quickly though, as Sonia Bokhari and Jocelyn Providence came away with a dominating, 8-3 win over Hanna Fritzinger and Bella Genkina.

Swiszcz struggled in her first singles match of the year, her first appearance on the court since missing the start of dual match play with tendonitis in her wrist. She fell to Leong, 6-7, 6-2, and 11-9.

“I think the lack of play in the last two weeks was really holding [Swiszcz] back,” said Dixon. “She fights against herself to be mentally tough, and when she hasn’t been playing she’s not as mentally tough, and I think that hurt her in the match.”

After splitting the first two doubles matches, the Minutewomen turned to early season sensations, Jessica Podlofsky and Chanel Glasper, to come away with a point for UMass. They didn’t disappoint, defeating Fordham’s Angelika Dabu and Julie Leong, 8-4, which got the Minutewomen off to the start they were looking for.

Despite gaining a few points, UMass wasn’t able to capitalize again all afternoon.

The Rams took complete control of the singles portion of the match. It all started with Simidian overpowering Bokhari in straight sets, 6-3 and 6-4, followed by Ali getting the sweep of Motyl, 6-3 and 6-3.

Sunday’s match also saw Podlofsky suffering her first loss of the season in straight sets, 6-2 and 6-3, at the hands of Dabu. Heading into the match, UMass’ star sophomore held a perfect, 9-0, record on the season.

“[Podlofsky] went out against someone she’s played before, she knew her game,” said Dixon. “She just went completely away from the game plan.”

Comas kept the Minutewomen alive, winning in two straight sets, 7-5 and 6-1, against Genkina after losing the first set, 1-6. That was UMass’ last breath of life, as the Rams took the last two matches with relative ease as Fritzinger bested Glasper, 6-3 and 6-3, to seal the win.

“The two players I thought for sure that I could count on were [Podlofsky] and [Glasper],” said Dixon. “Unfortunately, neither one of them could play well on Sunday.”

“The chances of the two of them having bad days [on the same day] are very slim, but it happened, unfortunately against a team where everybody was playing well.”

The Minutewomen (1-1) will now look to rebound in their next match on Oct. 20 where they will begin the first day of the ITA Regionals in New Haven, Conn.

Nick Canelas can be reached at [email protected].