Spartans’ Fernando looks to savor senior season before heading off to Rhode Island

From Maui island to Rhode Island.

While soaking in the final year as a Maui Interscholastic League athlete, Seabury Hall senior Nikki Fernando is already looking ahead to the "exciting opportunity" to compete at a higher level.

Fernando will be joining the University of Rhode Island women's tennis team on a full athletic scholarship next fall.

"I'm feeling very confident in my decision," said Fernando, who signed her National Letter of Intent on Wednesday morning. "I'm just really glad that all the work that I did is paying off, so I'm really excited."

After playing in many junior and high school competitions, she now looks forward to continuing her tennis career at the NCAA Division I level where she can "see how I improve as a player with all that training" while pursuing an education in neuroscience.

"With academics, I think I'm just excited to really study what I want to study," she added.

The senior already had her eyes set on attending a university in the northeast, but some of her dream schools were mainly for academics, and she knew she wanted to play tennis.

"I planned on going far, but honestly not as far as Rhode Island, but it still has that sense of being away from home and being independent, and as my parents have been reminding me, they're concerned about how I'll be in the snow," she said with a laugh on Tuesday afternoon via phone. "But I think that's the whole point-- I wanted to experience something new and just living in a new environment is something that I'm actually looking forward to."

The Rams finished 9-2 overall last year. They entered the Atlantic 10 Conference championships as the No. 2 seed but got knocked out in the semifinals.

Wanting room to grow as a student-athlete, Fernando chose URI knowing she could join the team as a mid- to top-level singles and doubles player.

"I know that I'll be able to push the people below me and I know I'll be able to improve with the people above me," she said.

However, Fernando has a few goals before she heads out.

While she was the MIL girls singles runner-up in 2019 as a freshman and is a state contender -- her sophomore and junior seasons were wiped out by the pandemic -- she noted that most of her attention in 2022 will be spent enjoying her final season as a Spartan.

"I don't think I'm going to focus on myself as much to win, but focus on helping the team and setting them up for when I leave," said Fernando, who during her freshman year led the Seabury girls to their first MIL title in 20 years. "I just want to show them that it can be fun and maybe get more people involved.

"With Seabury, we built such a strong bond, especially freshman and sophomore year-- I was really looking forward to another win my sophomore year-- but I'd look forward to playing tennis with them after school," she said. "It was always something that gave me motivation to get through the day because I knew I had my team to cheer me up."

* Dakota Grossman is at dgrossman@mauinews.com.