PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers tennis claimed a 4-3 victory over Penn State on Friday afternoon at the East Brunswick Racquet Club. The Scarlet Knights claimed four singles matchups to top the Nittany Lions.
 
RU improved to 2-0 on the season, while PSU suffered its first loss of the year to fall to 4-1.
 
"Today was a great win for us," said Head Coach Hilary Ritchie. "We knew Penn State coming in was going to be extremely tough. The win is a testament to how hard each person on this team has been working. The fact that we had some people come-from-behind and clinch points for us is huge. I hope that we can continue the momentum."
 
DOUBLES PLAY
Rutgers and Penn State battled through a tight doubles competition. In the No. 1 spot, the pair of junior Kat Muzik and freshman Tess Fisher rallied from behind to cut an early deficit to 5-4. Despite the comeback, PSU's Gabby O'Gorman and Olivia Rohrbacher claimed the next game to take the win, 6-4.
 
It would then become a race for the next win to determine which way the doubles point would sway. At the No. 2 spot, the duo junior Jaci Cochrane and sophomore Maya Jacobs trailed, 5-4, to the Nittany Lions Frederikke Svarre and Chelsea Sawyer. While, at the No. 3 spot, freshmen Sydney Kaplan and Kristiana Zahare had come-from-behind to take a 5-4 lead over Shannon Hanley and Samantha Smith of PSU.
 
Penn State would go on to collect the team doubles point after edging out the win at the No. 2 position.
 
SINGLES PLAY
Jacobs opened up singles play with a victory at the No. 1 spot for RU, topping PSU's O'Gorman by a score of 6-1, 6-4 to tie the match, 1-1.
 
The Nittany Lions responded with wins at the No. 5 and No. 4 singles spots to move back in front, 3-1.
 
After splitting the first two sets (1-6, 7-5), Muzik moved to a 3-0 lead in the third.  PSU's Sawyer, however, retired the match due to injury. This would bring the Scarlet Knights within one, 3-2, in the contest.
 
Despite dropping the first set, 6-4, Fisher rallied a 6-2 victory over Rohrbacher in the second to force the deciding set. She would seal the victory with 6-3 score in the third to tie the match between RU and PSU at 3-3.
 
At the No. 6 singles spot, Zahare started off her matchup with a 6-4 win in the first set before Hanley took the second 6-1. Zahare never let up in the third match, using a 6-2 victory to clinch the match win for RU.
 
UP NEXT
Rutgers travels to Army for its first road match of the season on Friday, Feb. 8.
 
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