Tennis Defeated By No. 34 Illinois

Friday, April 7

Piscataway, N.J.

12:00 PM

Rutgers University

Illinois

Photo by: Ben Solomon

Apr 07 | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

PISCATAWAY, N.J — The Rutgers women's tennis team (9-7, 0-5 B1G) couldn't get the win against No. 34 Illinois (14-6, 5-1 B1G), falling 5-0 on Friday afternoon at Piscataway High School.

RU battled hard, picking up a doubles match and a set win in singles but couldn't finish.

Doubles

Rutgers battled hard in doubles, but Illinois ultimately came out on top with wins on the first and third courts.

The pair of Jackeline Lopez/Arina Valitova gave the No. 15 ranked duo a hard-fought match on court No. 1, coming back to tie the match, 3-3. The Fighting Illini kept their lead however to come out with the 6-3 victory.

Amira Badawi/Tara Chilton earned their first win as a pair (6-3) on court No. 2, after having their previous two matches go unfinished.

On the third court, Mai Nguyen/Minchae Kim put up a fight, leading until the last two points. The doubles pair fell in a close contest, 7-5.

Some hard-fought doubles play 💪#GoRU | #RTennis pic.twitter.com/FiJSjJiPzy
— Rutgers Tennis (@RutgersTennis) April 7, 2023

Tennis anyone? #GoRU pic.twitter.com/AIZOwLL2l6
— Rutgers Scarlet Knights (@RUAthletics) April 7, 2023

Singles

The Illini followed up with four singles wins to clinch the 5-0 match win.

Nguyen was the lone Scarlet Knight to pick up a set, with a 6-3 victory in the first set on the fifth court. The third set had just begun when play was suspended.

After dropping their first sets, Lopez and Chilton battled back with extremely close second sets but could not get the job done.

Results
Doubles

No. 15 Kate Duong/Megan Heuser (Illini) def. Jackeline Lopez/Arina Valitova (RU) 6-3
Tara Chilton/Amira Badawi (RU) def. Emily Casati/Josie Frazier (Illini) 6-3
Kasia Treiber/Violeta Martinez (Illini) def. Mai Nguyen/Minchae Kim (RU) 7-5

Singles

Jackeline Lopez (RU) vs. Kate Duong (Illini) 1-6, 5-6, unfinished
No. 73 Ashley Yeah (Illini) def. Tara Chilton (RU) 6-2, 7-5
Megan Heuser (Illini) def. Amira Badawi (RU) 6-1, 6-4
Josie Frazier (Illini) def. Arina Valitova (RU) 6-1, 6-3
Mai Nguyen (RU) vs. Kasia Treiber (Illini) 6-3, 4-6, 1-0, unfinished
Violeta Martinez (Illini) def. Daira Cardenas (RU) 6-4, 6-3

Next Up

Rutgers will play the final contest of its four match homestand on Sunday, April 9 against Northwestern at 12 p.m. The location of the match is still TBA but will either be played indoors at East Brunswick Racquet Club or outdoors at Piscataway High School.