Rutgers Has Doubles Success at Brown
Oct 02 | Women's Tennis
Providence, R.I. - The Rutgers women's tennis team won five of six doubles matches at the Brown Invitational on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. The Scarlet Knights faced Brown, Boston University, and Auburn, playing doubles and singles matches against each team with no team scores recorded.
"The girls competed extremely hard this weekend and it was a very positive step in the right direction for the program," said head coach Ben Bucca. "Going 5-1 in doubles this weekend shows our progress, especially since the teams we played are some of the best on the East coast."
In doubles action, Anela Dujsic (Mississauga, Ontario) and Katrina Elder-Bush (Boston, Mass.) were victorious against Brown's Brett Finkelstein and Sara Mansur with an 8-5 win. They continued their success winning 9-8 over Boston's Cori Lefkowith and Yana Sadovskaya, and beating Auburn's Kelly Adams and Jill Hasternath, 8-6.
The Scarlet Knights prevailed again in doubles action as Dana Gordon-Hartman (Margate, N.J.)and Katherine Arlak (Leonia, N.J.) posted an 8-4 win over Boston's Elizabeth Carrao and Rebecca Row, and a 9-7 win over Auburn's Whitney Chapell and Melissa Koning.
In singles play, Arlak and Dujsic each posted singles wins against Brown in third-set replacing tiebreakers. Arlak defeated the Bears' Finkelstein, 1-6, 6-3, 1-0 (2), while Dujsic beat Brown's Alexa Baggio, 7-6(5), 0-6, 1-0 (7).
The Scarlet Knights also posted two singles wins over Boston. Elder-Bush defeated the Terriers' Sadovskaya, 6-2, 6-2, while Gordon-Hartman beat Brown's Lefkowith in a third-set replacing tiebreaker, 7-6(4), 4-6, 1-0 (7).
Arlak posted Rutgers' lone singles win against Auburn. Despite being one set down, Arlak beat the Tigers' Hasternath, 1-6, 6-4, 1-0 (5).
Bucca was especially pleased with the way the Scarlet Knights played in third-set replacing tiebreakers.
"We showed great competitiveness in winning nine of 14 tiebreakers," he said. "After a weekend like this one, where there's a lot of matches played, it's easy to let fatigue affect you, but the team played very well in pressure situations."
The Scarlet Knights compete next weekend at the USTA Invitational Saturday, Oct. 7 through Monday Oct. 9, at the U.S. National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
