Rutgers University
Illinois
Tennis Welcomes No. 34 Illinois and Northwestern in B1G Weekend
Apr 06 | Women's Tennis
EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. – The Rutgers women's tennis team (9-6, 0-4 B1G) will host No. 34 Illinois (13-6, 4-1 B1G) on Friday, April 7 before welcoming Northwestern (6-11, 2-3 B1G) on Sunday, April 9. Both matches will begin at 12 p.m.
Weather dependent, the matches will either be played indoors at East Brunswick Racquet Club or outdoors at Piscataway High School.
Schedule Update
Rutgers' match against Minnesota has been rescheduled for Wednesday, April 19 at 11 a.m. The match will take place indoors at the East Brunswick Racquet Club.
The contest was previously set for Sunday, April 2 but was postponed due to travel complications with the Golden Gophers.
Rutgers has rescheduled its match against Minnesota for Wednesday, April 19 at 11 a.m.
— Rutgers Tennis (@RutgersTennis) April 6, 2023
📰: https://t.co/pjemhlNy5K#GoRU | #RTennis pic.twitter.com/JAA1fNLWOu
Last Time Out
Rutgers fell to No. 50 Maryland on March 26 in its first home outdoor match, 6-1, on March 26.
First outdoor match of the season in the books, many more to come 🎾☀️#GoRU | #RTennis pic.twitter.com/u5nguHeMkN
— Rutgers Tennis (@RutgersTennis) March 28, 2023
Daira Cardenas picked up the lone point for RU, with a 7-6 (5), 2-6, 1-0 (9) on the last singles court. The victory marks the eighth Big Ten win of her career and first of the season.
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.
Chilton leads RU with a 9-4 singles record, playing all 14 matches on the second court. Jackeline Lopez has also been solid at the top lineup spot with an 8-6 mark. Cardenas has also been solid in the bottom half of the lineup, collecting a 6-1 record. She has won of her last two matches in addition to earning RU's first Big Ten win against the Terrapins.
Rutgers has also been strong in doubles as well, winning the first point in eight matches this season. Valitova and partner Jackeline Lopez are 8-2 on the slate.
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 Junior circuit. She won the ITF Juniors tournaments and Tennis Europe tournaments in both singles and doubles. Valitova also won the singles J5 in Islamabad in Nov. 2020 in addition to the singles J5 in Harare in Dec. 2020. In doubles, she came out on top in the J3 in Harare in Nov. 2021 and J4 in Estonia in May 2021. She is also a member of Russian National Beach Tennis Team (U18) and won the Juniors European Championship in doubles.
Scouting the Fighting Illini
After enjoying a three-match winning streak, Illinois fell to No. 5 Michigan in its most recent outing, 4-2.
Ashley Yeah paces the team in singles with a 9-7 record on the second court and is ranked No. 73 in the country. The doubles pair of Kate Duong and Megan Heuser top the team with a 14-1 overall mark and come in at No. 15 in the nation.
Looking into the Wildcats
Northwestern was on a four-match slide before picking up a win in its most recent match versus Michigan State, 4-1.
Briana Crowley leads the team with an 8-5 singles record between play on courts No. 3, 4 and 5. The doubles team of Christina Hand and Justine Leong pace the team with a 9-1 doubles mark on the first two courts.
Up Next
Rutgers will hit the road for consecutive matches at Iowa (April 14) at 6 p.m. and at Nebraska (April 16) at 12 p.m.
Players Mentioned
