Story Links PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers women’s tennis team (7-5, 1-3 B1G) returns home to take on No. 46 Penn State (11-3, 2-2 B1G) and No. 11 Ohio State (9-1, 3-1 B1G).In addition to the four newcomers, Ritchie also welcomed back four returners in Jackie Lopez, Minchae Kim, Mai Nguyen and Naomi Karki. Graduate Student Yana Gurevich became the first Scarlet Knight […]
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers women’s tennis team (7-5, 1-3 B1G) returns home to take on No. 46 Penn State (11-3, 2-2 B1G) and No. 11 Ohio State (9-1, 3-1 B1G).In addition to the four newcomers, Ritchie also welcomed back four returners in Jackie Lopez, Minchae Kim, Mai Nguyen and Naomi Karki. Graduate Student Yana Gurevich became the first Scarlet Knight in program history to earn All-Big Ten honors, after going 12-5 in conference play.In the offseason, head coach Hilary Ritchie welcomed four newcomers to the team including two freshman in Zeynep Ilker and Karina Jumazhanova in addition to two transfers in Zuzanna Frankowska and Zhou “Cindy” Xintong. The Scarlet Knights will continue conference play when they travel to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Friday March 28 at 4 p.m. before traveling to Madison to battle the Wisconsin Badgers on Sunday March 30 at 11 a.m.”The Arthur Ashe Award is a prestigious ITA Award and Tara is a perfect recipient,” head coach Hilary Ritchie 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.” On the heels of the 2024 spring season, alum Tara Chilton and assistant coach Hailey Barrett 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.
Scouting the Nittany LionsRU 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 Fall
The Scarlet Knights had their best season under head coach 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.
National RecognitionRutgers 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. 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.
Scouting the Buckeyes
No. 46 Penn State is currently 11-3 and 2-2 against the conference. Losers of their last two, the Nittany Lions are led by Olivia Dorner, holding down the number one spot in singles play with a 7-4 record. In doubles play along with partner Maiko Uchijima, the duo is 9-3 in the spring campaign.
OSU is currently the 11th ranked team in the nation, holding a 9-2 overall record and 3-1 in conference play. The Buckeyes are led by No. 8 Luciana Perry and No. 35 Teah Chavez, who as a duo are ranked 15th nationally. Perry is 7-3 from the No. 1 singles spot while Chavez is undefeated in singles No. 2. The duo is 8-1 this spring and undefeated in conference play.
New Kids ‘On The Banks’
The Returners
Recapping the 2024 Spring
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.
Originally from Bursa, Turkey Zeynep Ilker 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.
PSU holds a 7-2 advantage in the lifetime series with Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights have not beat the Nittany Lions since the 2019 season, when they edged Penn State at home, 4-3.
The Scarlet Knights will take on the Nittany Lions on Saturday March 14 at 12 p.m. for the second Community Day of the year, outside at the Livingston Tennis Center. Those in attendance for Community Day will receive free pizza, raffles and giveaways, and autographs with the team. RU will then take on the Buckeyes on Sunday March 23 at 12 p.m back inside at the East Brunswick Racquet Club.
“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.”
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.
Last Time Out
History Against Ohio State
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.
History Against Penn StateZuzanna Frankowska 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 went 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. 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 of Amira Badawi and Mai Nguyen came in at a season-best No. 54. 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. 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. Nguyen finished her sophomore campaign with 18 victories, including 11 in singles competitions. She was featured twice in the ITA National Doubles rankings with partner Amira Badawi and defeated Penn State’s 69th-ranked doubles pair with partner Yana Gurevich. In addition, Nguyen earned a singles victory to help RU top Michigan State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Looking AheadRutgers dropped both matches in its last weekend of play, falling to No. 56 Purdue and Indiana. Naomi Karki, Jackie Lopez and Zuzanna Frankowska all recorded singles wins in the losses.Follow Along
Follow Rutgers women’s tennis on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.The Scarlet Knights have not beaten the Buckeyes in the eight-match lifetime series between programs.Karina Jumazhanova 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.
