Rutgers University
Ohio State
Tennis to Finish Regular Season at Home With B1G Weekend Doubleheader
Apr 21 | Women's Tennis
EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. – The Rutgers women's tennis team (9-10, 0-8 B1G) will finish out the 2023 spring regular season at home against No. 9 Ohio State (16-6, 8-1 B1G) on Saturday, April 22 and No. 62 Penn State (11-12, 3-6 B1G) on Sunday, April 23. Both matches will begin at noon.
Weather dependent, the matches will either be played indoors at East Brunswick Racquet Club or outdoors at Piscataway High School.
On Sunday against the Nittany Lions, the team will celebrate thw 50th Anniversary of Title IX as well as program alumni.
Last Time Out
The Scarlet Knights fell to then-No. 58 Iowa (4-2) and then-No. 68 Nebraska (4-0) last weekend.
Against the Hawkeyes, RU fought back, tying the contest twice before falling in three singles matches and dropping the match decision. Four of the six contests went to three sets in a hard-fought effort. Arina Valitova (No. 4) and Jackeline Lopez (No. 1) picked up their first Big Ten singles wins of the season in the match.
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.
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 Buckeyes
Ohio State was on an eight-match winning streak before falling in its first Big Ten contest of the season to Michigan, 4-1.
Lucia Marzai leads the team with a 14-2 overall singles record, playing on the final four courts. Shelly Bereznyak also boasts a 13-1 mark playing in the last three lineup spots.
Looking into the Nittany Lions
Penn State has dropped seven of its last ten matches, most recently falling to then-No. 6 Michigan (4-0) and Michigan State (4-3).
Three Nittany Lions have racked up double-digit win totals this spring including Olivia Dorner who leads the team with a 14-7 overall singles record on courts No. 3, 4 and 5. Sofiya Chekhlystova has also been strong for PSU with a 13-6 mark at the first lineup spot.
Up Next
With the regular season behind the team, Rutgers will turn its attention to the 2023 Big Ten Tournament. The event, hosted by Purdue in West Lafayette, Indiana, will begin on Wednesday, April 26.
Players Mentioned
