Rutgers
Purdue
Tennis Heads to Purdue, Indiana
Mar 13 | Women's Tennis
The Scarlet Knights will take on the Boilermakers on Friday March 14 (1 p.m.) at the Schwartz Tennis Center in West Lafayette, Ind.Ā and the Hoosiers on Sunday March 16 (11 a.m.) at the IU Tennis Ceneter in Bloomington, Ind.
Last Time Out
RU went 1-1 in its first weekend of conference play with a win over Oregon, 4-3,Ā and a loss to No. 19 Washington, 4-0. Karina Jumazhanova sealed the match clinching win against the Ducks while doubles duo Mai Nguyen & Naomi Karki defeated No. 85 doubles duo Alexia Jacobs & Reece Carter
Recapping the 2024 Fall
RU is coming off a successful fall that consisted of a Brown Invite tournament victory as well as a quarterfinal appearance by Karki and Zhou in doubles play of the ITA Regionals.
Overall, the team amassed an impressive 55-33 record in singles. Frankowska paced the squad in singles play with 10 wins, while the duo of Karki-Zhou won five doubles matches to lead the team.
Recapping the 2024 Spring
The Scarlet Knights had their best season under head coachĀ Hilary Ritchie, finishing with a 12-12 record and earning their second win in program history at the Big Ten Tournament. RU also picked up nine victories in non-conference play, including three shutouts. Ā
Rutgers started the spring 9-3, their best start since the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season. The team also added two Big Ten regular season wins, defeating Michigan State and Minnesota. Ā
Rutgers made history in the ITA rankings, claiming its first-ever team and doubles ranking. The Scarlet Knights reached as high as No. 68 in the polls while the pair ofĀ Amira BadawiĀ andĀ Mai NguyenĀ came in at a season-best No. 54. Ā
Graduate StudentĀ Yana GurevichĀ became the first Scarlet Knight in program history to earn All-Big Ten honors, after going 12-5 in conference play.
National RecognitionOn the heels of the 2024 spring season, alumĀ Tara ChiltonĀ and assistant coachĀ Hailey BarrettĀ have both garnered regional and national praise from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) with the announcement of the end of the year awards. Chilton earned the prestigious Arthur Ashe Award while Barrett was named the Northeast Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
Chilton, who came to Rutgers in the fall of 2023 at the start of her junior season, has made a long-lasting impact on the Scarlet Knights. During her time On The Banks Chilton has excelled in all areas including in tennis, academics and volunteering in her community.Ā
"The Arthur Ashe Award is a prestigious ITA Award and Tara is a perfect recipient," head coachĀ Hilary RitchieĀ said. "Tara always strives for excellence. In her two years at Rutgers, she made a big impact on our team, the business school and the student-athlete community overall."Ā
The ITA Assistant Coach of the Year honors an assistant coach who has exhibited outstanding leadership in ways that contribute to on and off-court team performance. These are qualities that assistant coach Barrett has exemplified since arriving On The Banks. Ā
"Hailey is so deserving of this award," Ritchie said. "She wears an incredible number of hats to help this team and the individual student-athletes as well. During a time when there is a lot of uncertainty in college athletics, Hailey always remains positive and puts her passion for tennis first."
New Kids 'On The Banks'In the offseason, head coachĀ Hilary RitchieĀ welcomed four newcomers to the team including two freshman inĀ Zeynep IlkerĀ andĀ Karina JumazhanovaĀ in addition to two transfers inĀ Zuzanna FrankowskaĀ and Zhou "Cindy" Xintong. Ā
Zuzanna FrankowskaĀ played her freshman year at Baylor and hails from Kobylka, Poland. In the fall of 2023, she made her debut at the TCU Fall Invitational and wentĀ onto pick up four singles wins and a doubles victory throughout the slate. In the 2024 spring, she played two matches at the No. 5 lineup spot and picked up a doubles win against the Iowa State on the third court. Ā
Zhou "Cindy" Xintong spent her rookie season at Fordham, where she excelled. In the 2023 fall, she went 4-3 in singles play and 6-1 in doubles. She saw action in 18 of the team's 22 spring matches, going 8-5 in singles play, earning victories on courts No. 3, 4 and 5. The Mississauga, Ontario, Canada native went 11 matches without a loss, picking up big two-set wins over George Washington, Brown, Richmond and George Mason. Ā
Originally from Bursa, TurkeyĀ Zeynep IlkerĀ comes to Rutgers with a wealth of international playing experience. A member of Turkey's National Team, she has taken part in European Championships. She spent several years competing on the ITF Junior Tour and in 2023 reached a career-best ranking of 408. Ā
Karina JumazhanovaĀ also brings lots of worldly experience to the team, coming from Almaty, Kazakhstan. She mainly competed in Women's 15k events on the ITF World Tennis Tour, reaching a career-high ITF ranking of 178. The freshman also saw action in the U16 Juniors Billie Jean King Cup, representing Kazakhstan. She is an ITF J4 Doubles Winner and Finalist, in addition to being a Kazakhstan Doubles Finalist Champion. Ā
The Returners Ā
In addition to the four newcomers, Ritchie also welcomed back four returners in Jackie Lopez,Ā Minchae Kim,Ā Mai NguyenĀ andĀ Naomi Karki. Ā
Lopez compiled eight singles wins across the 2023 season, finishing the campaign on a three-match winning streak. She clinched RU's first-ever victory over Minnesota in addition to the win over NJIT.Ā
Kim finished the spring campaign with a strong 11 singles and nine doubles victories, including eight in Big Ten competition. She helped RU earn a win in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament with a singles win over Michigan State. Ā
Nguyen finished her sophomore campaign with 18 victories, including 11 in singles competitions. She was featured twice in the ITA National Doubles rankings with partnerĀ Amira BadawiĀ and defeated Penn State's 69th-ranked doubles pair with partnerĀ Yana Gurevich. In addition, Nguyen earned a singles victory to help RU top Michigan State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.Ā
Karki finished freshman campaign with a combined 14 wins across singles and doubles competitions. Recorded first-career conference singles win over Michigan State and provided the dual-clinching win to help Rutgers complete its comeback and beat UConn.
History Against PurdueRU has fallen in all eight match ups against the Boilermakers.
History Against Indiana
The Scarlet Knights are 1-7 against the Hoosiers with the lone win coming in 2021.
Scouting the Boilermakers
Purdue is currently 7-3 and 1-2 in conference play. Losers of their last two, the Boilermakers are led by Carmen Gallardo Guevara, collecting aĀ 6-3 record at the singles No. 1.
Scouting the Hoosiers
Indiana holds a 6-7 record and winless in conference play. The Hooisers are led by their Big Ten Preseason Player to Watch Nicole Teodosescu, locking down thier singles No.1 position.
Looking Ahead
The Scarlet Knights will come back home to the East Brunswick Racquet Club to continue conference play when they take on the Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday March 22 at 12 p.m. before facing off against the Ohio State Buckeyes on Sunday March 23 at 12 p.m.
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