Rutgers sweeps Seton Hall 7-0
The Rutgers tennis team showed who's on top in New Jersey this past weekend against Seton Hall. Competing at the East Brunswick Racquet Club, the Scarlet Knights (7-2, 0-1) quickly swept the Pirates (1-8, 0-1) 7-0 on Friday.
Rutgers didn’t waste any time and finished all of its singles matches within two sets. It’s the first time this season that the Knights were able to claim such a feat.
Since Seton Hall didn’t have the numbers to have three doubles pairs, there were only two doubles matches to start things off.
At the No. 1 spot, "KatFish" duo sophomore Tess Fisher and senior Kat Muzik ran away with the first 6-0 win. Helping to clinch the doubles point was sophomore Sydney Jones and senior Jaci Cochrane at No. 2 in a 6-2 win for Rutgers.
Heading into singles play, only five matches were seen on the courts due to the Pirates’ numbers. This gave the Knights a default win at the No. 6 position.
Fisher dominated her match at No. 2 to defeat Seton Hall’s Michal Matson in sets of 6-2 and 6-1. Fisher was followed by sophomore Kristiana Zahare, who completed her match in a 6-4 and 6-1 win over the Pirates’ Anniek Jansen at the No. 5 seed. Sophomore Sydney Kaplan was close behind to win her match in sets of 6-3 and 6-1.
Closing out the match was junior Maya Jacobs and Muzik. In a tight second set, Jacobs was able to capture her singles win (6-1, 7-5) against Seton Hall’s Minja Gligic at the top of the lineup. Muzik locked up the competition with a 6-4, 6-3 win at the No. 4 spot.
"The team came out with good energy today and they took care of business and played fairly cleanly," said head coach Hilary Ritchie. "Now we're really going to be focused on our next match. It is different to have a midweek match, but it's a big one being a conference match. We're going to be really focused this week and make sure we're prepared."
Rutgers will serve up its next competition tomorrow at home against Nebraska. This will be the Knights' first midweek match of the season and second Big Ten competition.
The Cornhuskers (7-3) are one of the only Big Ten opponents that Rutgers has been able to defeat over the past two seasons. When the Knights and Nebraska played last year, it was thanks to the Rutgers’ doubles-point win that allowed it to capture its Big Ten win of the 2019 season.
Since there were no seniors that graduated last season, the Knights will compete with all of their returnees that played in that match.
Coming off two wins against Colorado State and Iowa State, the Cornhuskers will look to earn their third victory in a row. They are undefeated at home but tend to falter when they’re on the road. Competing against Rutgers will be Nebraska’s first Big Ten match this season and possibly the Knights’ first conference win.
The match against the Cornhuskers will be Rutgers’ last home competition for the next month. The Knights won’t be returning to home court until the end of March.
Competition against Nebraska is set for 1:30 p.m. at the East Brunswick Racquet Club tomorrow.
For updates on the Rutgers tennis team, follow @TargumSports on Twitter.
