EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. – The Rutgers women’s tennis team (9-10, 0-8 B1G) will finish out the 2023 spring regular season at home against No. 9 Ohio State (16-6, 8-1 B1G) on Saturday, April 22 and No. 62 Penn State (11-12, 3-6 B1G) on Sunday, April 23. Both matches will begin at noon.
Weather dependent, the matches will either be played indoors at East Brunswick Racquet Club or outdoors at Piscataway High School.
Last Time Out
The Scarlet Knights fell to then-No. 58 Iowa (4-2) and then-No. 68 Nebraska (4-0) last weekend.
Against the Hawkeyes, RU fought back, tying the contest twice before falling in three singles matches and dropping the match decision. Four of the six contests went to three sets in a hard-fought effort. Arina Valitova (No. 4) and Jackeline Lopez (No. 1) picked up their first Big Ten singles wins of the season in the match.
Strong Start
The Scarlet Knights came out hot in the spring, starting off with a perfect 4-0 record. The team earned sweeps over Bucknell (7-0), Binghamton (7-0) in addition to wins against Drexel (6-1) and Army (5-2) for their first and best undefeated start since 2018.
Transferring In
RU welcomed two transfers this offseason in Amira Badawi (NJIT) and Tara Chilton (Washington).
Badawi, a native of Cairo, Egypt, compiled a 30-7 record with NJIT over two seasons, including an impressive 22-5 mark playing in the top three singles spots for the Highlanders in 2021-22, a season that ended with a second place showing in the Southland Conference Tournament.
In her two seasons at Washington, Chilton compiled an 18-18 singles and 17-14 doubles record. Last year as a sophomore, Chilton and the No. 37 Huskies played to a 14-12 overall record and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. She went 7-2 in singles tournament play including reaching the round of 32 at ITA Northwest Regional.
Freshmen Duo
Rutgers also welcomed two freshmen to the squad, Mai Nguyen and Arina Volitova.
Ranked top 75 nationally, Nguyen arrives “On The Banks” from Atlanta, Georgia. She was the 2019 Southern Doubles Champions and finished in fifth in National Doubles. She was also the 2020 Georgia State Champion and 2021 Winter Southerns Champions.
A product of Bratislava, Slovakia, Valitova comes to the US after finding success in the European…
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