Rutgers University
Seton Hall
Tennis Set to Host Trio of Matches Over the Weekend
Feb 09 | Women's Tennis
EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. – The Rutgers women's tennis team (4-1) will host three matches this upcoming weekend at the East Brunswick Racquet Club. The Scarlet Knights will host a doubleheader on Friday, Feb. 10 welcoming Seton Hall (2-2) for an 11 a.m. match followed by LIU (3-1) at 3:30 p.m. The team will also welcome Fairleigh Dickinson (0-1) on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 3 p.m.
Strong Start
The Scarlet Knights came out hot in the spring, starting off with a 4-0 record. The team earned wins over Bucknell (7-0), Binghamton (7-0), Drexel (6-1) and Army (5-2) for their best start since 2018.
Back to work 🤝#GoRU | #RTennis pic.twitter.com/i2QSt2jBzZ
— Rutgers Tennis (@RutgersTennis) February 6, 2023
Four Scarlet Knights remain undefeated this spring in Arina Valitova (4-0), Daira Cardenas (2-0), Amira Badawi (2-0) and Minchae Kim (1-0). Valitova has won all four matches at the No. 5 singles spot in straight-sets, allowing no more than four points in a set.
Rutgers has also been solid in doubles, winning the first point in all but one match this season. Valitova and partner Jackeline Lopez are a perfect 4-0 on the slate while Kim and Chloe Brown are also 2-0.
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 Pirates
Seton Hall blanked Binghamton (7-0) to kick off the spring season before dropping consecutive matches to Sacred Heart (3-4) and Army (1-4). The Pirates most recently defeated Monmouth last weekend (6-1) to stay even on the campaign.
Olivia Kempinski (4-0) and Arabella Moen (3-0) are perfect in singles on courts three and five, respectively.
Looking Into the Sharks
LIU started off the season with back-to-back wins over Siena (6-1) and Hofstra (7-0) before falling to Penn (1-6). The Sharks got back on top in its most recent outing at Drexel (5-2).
Investigating the Knights
Fairleigh Dickinson dropped its first match of the slate to St. John's (1-6). Shreya Gulia earned the lone point for the Knights with a singles win at the No. 4 spot.
FDU will face NJIT on Friday, Feb. 10 before traveling to Rutgers on Sunday.
Up Next
Next up, Rutgers will host UMass on Saturday, Feb. 18 for a 5 p.m. match before embarking on a five-match road stint.
Players Mentioned
