NEWARK, N.J. The tennis team defeated the NJIT Highlanders, 6-1, on Friday at the Fleisher Athletic Center courts at NJIT. The Pirates are now 1-0 on the season, while the Highlanders fall to 2-1. The match, originally scheduled to be played at Seton Hall, was moved to NJIT because of the weather.
In second singles play, junior Amanda El-Tobgy (Pittsburgh, Pa.) recorded the Pirates’ first win of the day, defeating NJIT’s Isha Toor in three sets (0-6, 6-2, 7-5). El-Tobgy started off slow and lost the first set to Toor, 0-6, but she regrouped and won the second set, 6-2, to tie the match at one set apiece. The third and deciding set was a close one, as El-Tobgy edged Toor, 7-5, to take the match.
Senior Veronika Gerka (Edmonton, Alberta) notched another win for the Pirates. She defeated Chiori Koike, 6-0, 2-6 (10-2 super tiebreaker), for the fifth singles victory.
Seniors Ebru Burduroglu (Istanbul, Turkey) and Iva Gyurgina (Radomir, Bulgaria) and freshman Liza Chu (Republic of Panama) each won their singles matches in two sets. Buduroglu defeated Fatima Kasem, 6-0, 6-2, in third singles, while Gyurgina beat Fanny Aizier, 6-2, 6-3, in fourth singles. Chu won her sixth singles match, 6-0, 6-4, against Grace Bodgan.
The Pirates won all three doubles matches played on Friday. In the first doubles match, the pair of Sein and Burduroglu set the tone and defeated Kasem and Iulia Doci, 9-8. Gyurgina and El-Tobgy then defeated Toor and Aizier, 8-5, in the second doubles match. In third doubles, Gerka and freshman Nathalie Ranger (Oakville, Ontario) finished off the match, topping Bogdan and Koike, 8-5.
In first singles, NJIT’s Doci defeated Pirates junior Nadja Sein (Tallinn, Estonia), 6-3, 6-4.
The Pirates’ next match is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 13, at 2:00 p.m. at Columbia University in New York, N.Y.
