Box Score
NEWARK, N.J. (March 23, 2018) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's tennis team earned its first win of the 2018 season Friday night on The Golden Dome Courts, topping Pratt Institute, 7-2.
The win is the first for first-year Head Coach
Andres Bustani since taking over the program in January.
"It's always great when you can get a win, especially that first one," said the Scarlet Raider manager. "I thought we took care of business on most courts which was great to see. We are hoping to build on this moving forward and our match tomorrow is our first chance to do that."
Rutgers-Newark improves to 1-3 on the young season, while Pratt drops to 0-2. The Scarlet Raiders host Baruch College Saturday in a non-conference showdown set for a 1 p.m. start.
R-N took a key 2-1 lead after doubles play as the Raider pairings at two and three earned triumphs.
Richard Nguyen and
Kevin Martin rolled 8-2 at No. 2, while
Alan Yu and
Vihang Patel scrapped for an 8-5 victory out of the third slot.
"Taking a 2-1 lead after doubles is huge," said Bustani. "We need to work on our consistency from the start, but I liked what I saw today and hopefully we can carry that over to Saturday."
No. 1
Brandon Davis rolled to a win out of the top slot, with
Veer Kachhiapatel doing the same at No. 2. Martin won a marathon at No. 4, prevailing 6-3, 4-6, 10-4. Yu and Patel picked up the final two Newark wins, going 6-3, 6-2 and 6-0, 6-1, respectively, at five and six.
"Kevin showed a lot getting his win at No. 4 today," added Bustani. "He dropped a tough second set but was able to stick with it to pull it out."
Martin, Yu and Patel all went 2-0 in the win for Rutgers-Newark.
