Box Score
WAYNE, N.J. (September 16, 2016) – The Rutgers University-Newark women's tennis team earned a New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) win over William Paterson University Friday night in Wayne.
The conference win is the program's first since Saturday, September 10, 2011 against Rutgers University-Camden. R-N is now 1-2 in the league and 2-4 overall, while Paterson drops to 0-4 overall and 0-2 in the NJAC.
"The ladies were so pumped for this match," said second-year Head Coach
Tom Battaglia – whose team has taken major strides in his first 14 months leading the program. "Everyone played incredibly focused and determined. The entire group played one point at a time and didn't look beyond that and it showed in the great result."
Rutgers-Newark earned wins at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to take a 2-1 lead into singles play.
Marthalyn Johnson and senior
Jamie Lee Buhain won 8-4 out of the second slot, with
Nell Karpinski and
Julibeth Hernandez cruising 8-3 at No. 3.
William Paterson won singles matches out of the first and second flight, but it was all Scarlet Raiders from there. Karpinski improved to 2-0 on the day with a 6-1, 6-3 triumph at No. 3, and second-year
Bryanna Thaxton picked up a 6-3, 6-3 victory at No. 4. Buhain moved to 2-0 with a hard-fought win at No. 5, going 7-5, 4-6, 10-5. R-N's final tally came at No. 6 as Hernandez rolled 6-1, 6-1. Hernandez joined Karpinski and Buhain with perfect ledgers on the day.
"This was truly a total team effort," added Battaglia. "It is amazing to look back at the beginning of last year, and think about the growth these players have shown in a relatively short time period. It's so much fun to see the improvement and even more fun to see the team get a big conference victory."
When Paterson and Rutgers-Newark met in 2015, the Pioneers rolled 9-0. In 2016, it was a completely different story as the Scarlet Raiders earned their first conference win in more than four NJAC seasons of play.
Rutgers-Newark will return to the courts at the College of Staten Island on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
