Rutgers University
Iowa
Tennis Travels to Face No. 58 Iowa and No. 68 Nebraska
Apr 13 | Women's Tennis
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Rutgers women's tennis team (9-8, 0-6 B1G) will finish out its road schedule this weekend against No. 58 Iowa (9-8, 4-3 B1G) on Friday, April 14 (6 p.m. ET) and No. 68 Nebraska (13-7, 2-5 B1G) on Sunday, April 16 (12 p.m. ET)
Schedule Update
Rutgers' upcoming match against Minnesota, rescheduled for Wednesday, April 19, has been canceled.
Golden Gophers' Director of Athletics Mark Coyle announced Wednesday afternoon that the team will not compete for the remainder of the season due to a rash of injuries that has reduced the available number of healthy players to three.
Last Time Out
The Scarlet Knights dropped a 4-1 decision to Northwestern (8-11, 4-3 B1G) on Sunday, April 9 at Piscataway High School.
The Wildcats claimed the doubles point before winning three singles matches to seal the win. Amira Badawi earned her third Big Ten win of the season with a victory on the third singles court.
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 9-7 singles record, playing all 16 matches on the second court. Jackeline Lopez has also been solid at the top lineup spot, picking up eight victories. Cardenas has also been strong in the bottom half of the lineup, collecting a 6-2 record. She earned RU's first Big Ten win against the Terrapins.
RU has also been strong in doubles as well, winning the first point in eight matches this season. Valitova and partner Jackeline Lopez are 8-4 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 Hawkeyes
Iowa had won three matches in a row before dropping two of its last three. The team most recently fell to No. 8 Ohio State (4-0) on April 9.
Daianna Hayashida leads the team with an 8-3 singles record, with matches on courts No. 3, 4 and 5. She has won her last three contests. The doubles pair of Hayashida/Vipasha Mehra pace the team with a 6-4 mark, but have fallen in their last four matches.
Looking into the Cornhuskers
Nebraska has fallen in its last three outings, dropping decisions to Purdue (4-1), No. 8 Ohio State (4-0) and No. 59 Penn State (4-2). The team's last win came at the end of March over Indiana (4-2).
Samantha Alicea leads the Cornhuskers with a 13-2 mark in singles. She is undefeated on the third court, 9-0, and 3-1 in Big Ten play.
Alicea/Raphelle Lacasse also pace the squad in doubles play on the first court with an 11-1 record while going 4-1 in conference competition.
Up Next
The Scarlet Knights now have two remaining home matches against Ohio State (April 22) and Penn State (April 23). Both contests will begin at noon. Weather dependent, the matches will either be played indoors at East Brunswick Racquet Club or outdoors at Piscataway High School.
Players Mentioned
