NEWARK, N.J. --- The NJIT women's tennis team improved to 2-0 in the year with a second straight 7-0 shutout, this time of Fairleigh Dickinson Friday evening at the Naimoli Family Athletic and Recreation Facility.

In singles, freshman Amira Badawi earned NJIT's first point with a strong straight victory while giving up the fewest games of all the Highlander matches. Fellow Highlander newcomer Aya El Sayed did the same, winning her first-ever singles match at the No. 1 flight in two sets.

Mouna Bouzgarrou gave NJIT its third point with a straight set win at No. 4 and Joleta Budiman handled her No. 2 match in similar fashion. Adara Omar and Advaita Saravanan helped NJIT complete the singles sweep at Nos. 5 and 6, respectively, with Saravanan matching Badawi's games allowed.

While NJIT lost its first doubles flight of the year, the Highlanders still claimed the point with wins in the top two flights.

"Our first 2 doubles played incredibly great tennis and I was really happy with that high level of performance," head coach Zaki Abdelrahman said after the victory. "I thought this FDU team we faced today was the strongest we played in several years, so for our girls to play that good and to win all their singles in two sets and first two doubles 6-0 was awesome. Watching our freshmen Aya playing No. 1 in front of a big crowd in her first college singles match and handling that pressure perfectly was great, especially seeing her rally back from down 1-4 in the second set. I am proud of all the players' fighting spirit and for how hard they worked today." 

NEXT UP
The Highlanders will hit the road for the first time on Sunday, February 2 with they take on Penn in Philadelphia. First serve is scheduled for 1 p.m.

NJIT 7, Fairleigh Dickinson 0
1/31/2020 at Newark, NJ (Naimoli Center) 
Singles competition
1. Aya El Sayed (NJIT) def. KUBANOVA, Alena (FDU) 6-2, 6-4
2. Joleta Budiman (NJIT) def. VOROZHEIKINA, A. (FDU) 7-5, 6-3
3. Amira Badawi (NJIT) def. GULIA, Shreya (FDU) 6-2, 6-1
4. Mouna Bouzgarrou (NJIT) def. LASHEEN, Amina (FDU) 6-2, 7-5
5. Adara Omar (NJIT) def. SINGH, Smriti (FDU) 6-3, 6-3
6. Advaita Saravanan (NJIT) def. EFTENOIU, Patricia (FDU) 6-2, 6-1

Doubles competition
1. Mouna Bouzgarrou/Amira Badawi (NJIT) def. KUBANOVA, Alena/VOROZHEIKINA, A. (FDU) 6-0
2. Joleta Budiman/Aya El Sayed (NJIT) def. EFTENOIU, Patricia/VLADESCU, Anamaria (FDU) 6-0
3. GULIA, Shreya/LASHEEN, Amina (FDU) def. Adara Omar/Advaita Saravanan (NJIT) 7-5

Match Notes
Fairleigh Dickinson 0-1
NJIT 2-0
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (3,1,4,2,5,6)