Women's Tennis Rallies To Edge Out Cornell, 4-3

The NJIT women's tennis team closed out the first weekend of the spring campaign with a bounce back 4-3 victory over the Cornell Big Red Sunday afternoon at the Reis Tennis Center.

The Highlanders (1-1) were pushed to the brink against host Cornell (0-2) after the Big Red clinched the doubles point and finished Nos. 1 and 3 singles in straight sets to take a 3-0 lead. However, NJIT showed its grit by winning the final four flights for the dramatic victory.

Freshman Laura Wipfli put the Highlanders on the board with a straight set win at the No. 4 spot before junior Shalom Salvi battled through a three-setter with identical scores (6-4, 4-6, 6-4) to pull NJIT with one, 3-2.

Grad Joleta Budiman rallied back from a first-set tiebreaker loss at No. 2 to win in three and tie the match at 3-3, setting up freshman Irene Cocero to win her match - and the full contest - in three sets.

MATCH RESULTS
Doubles
No. 1: Lauren Stein/Alexandra Savu def. Shivani Ingle/Joleta Budiman, 6-3.
No. 2: Laura Wipfli/Sandra Dzhambazov vs. Emma Baker/Lan Mi, 4-3 (unfinished).
No. 3: Tanya Fan/Sofia Iantosca def. Cocero/Salvi, 6-0.
Doubles order of finish: 3, 1

Singles
No. 1: Lan Mi def. Shivani Ingle, 6-0, 6-3.
No. 2: Joleta Budiman def. Lauren Stein, 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-4.
No. 3: Emma Baker def. Sandra Dzhambazov, 6-3, 6-4.
No. 4: Laura Wipfli def. Alexandra Savu, 7-5, 6-3.
No. 5: Shalom Salvi def. Fatima El Ashram, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
No. 6: Irene Cocero def. Tanya Fan, 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-4.
Singles order of finish: 1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6

NEXT UP
NJIT will close out the month with the first of six straight home matches on Friday, Jan. 27 at 4 p.m. against Rider.