Rutgers University
Minnesota
Tennis Welcomes Minnesota Sunday Afternoon
Mar 31 | Women's Tennis
EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. – The Rutgers women's tennis team (9-6, 0-4 B1G) will host Minnesota (5-11, 0-5) on Sunday, April 2 at 12 p.m. in its second of four consecutive home matches.
The match will be hosted at the East Brunswick Racquet Club, located at 11 Ruth Street in East Brunswick, New Jersey.
Last Time Out
Rutgers fell to No. 50 Maryland on March 26 in its first home outdoor match of the spring, 6-1.
Daira Cardenas picked up the lone point for RU, with a 7-6 (5), 2-6, 1-0 (9) decision on the last singles court. The victory marks the eighth Big Ten win of her career and first of the season.
B1G win for Daira 👏#GoRU | #RTennis pic.twitter.com/dsKPGpMSz7
— Rutgers Tennis (@RutgersTennis) March 27, 2023
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 Gophers
Minnesota has been on a seven-match slide, including dropping six consecutive Big Ten bouts. The team's last win came against Utah on Feb. 24, with a 4-3 decision.
The Golden Gophers will also face No. 49 Maryland on Friday before facing the Scarlet Knights.
Up Next
Rutgers will end its four-match homestand next weekend against Illinois on Friday, April 7 and Northwestern on Sunday, April 9. Both matches will be at 12 p.m.
Players Mentioned
