The Rams No. 2 sophomore Valerie Chacon, who last season anchored a talented young Rams team at the No. 1 singles position, also earned a silver medal for the Rams.
Wood said he believes Chacon is poised for success after a great season last year.
"Val is feeling great, she is in good shape physically and mentally and is going to have another great season," Wood said.
Like Maurer, Chacon also won her two matches rather easily, but lost a hard-fought finals match against Fairfield's Paulina Rys 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Wood hinted that he was going to try the two together in doubles, with the hope that the No.1s can work together to give them a powerful tandem at No.1 doubles.
The Rams continued its strong performance with a silver medal from No. 3 singles sophomore Grace Hedstrom, who in her first match defeated Nicole Betz of Sacred Heart 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.
She easily defeated UNH's Sarah Rice 6-1, 6-0, but in the finals fell against Fairfield's Diana Postupack 1-6, 5-7.
Since Hedstrom joined the team, Wood has always praised her talent.
"She has a lot of power, and is trying to learn when to use it," he said. "She has weapons. She just needs to work on selecting when to use them and I believe she will do that this year."
In doubles action, the tandem of freshmen Steff Catanzano and Amanda Barletta also earned a silver medal, winning 6-0, 6-0 in the first match, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 in the second and 7-6, 2-1 in the finals.
Not to downplay the Rams achievements, but it is not time to start writing off the team as Atlantic-10 champions.
"We're going to keep moving up in the ranks," Wood said. "The way I look at it, my first year we finished 14th. Last year we were good and still 11th, and this year we're going to move up a couple spots again, but we are not ready to challenge for the top spot."
At the same time, the Rams have a bit of a handicap when it comes to fielding strong teams.
"We only have two and a half scholarships, while other schools have 8," Wood said. "But at the same time, moving into the top half is still pretty impressive."
Wood continued with a baseball analogy to explain his team's position.
"We are like the Minnesota Twins of tennis, they always have a good team and keep their payroll low like us," he said.
Despite the team's lack of scholarships, it will still be able to finish in the upper half of the A-10 with the talent it has.
The Rams will have their second match of the year Wednesday against Bryant College in Smithfield, R.I., at 3 p.m.
"They're pretty good actually," Wood said. "We should win, but we have to play well and can't take them lightly."
(C) 2006 The Good Five Cent Cigar via U-WIRE
