MADISON, Wis. – Needing to win the final two matches of the year to guarantee a spot in the Big Ten tournament, the Wisconsin women's tennis team is halfway there as they battled through injuries to take down Rutgers, 6-1 on Friday afternoon at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.

"Obviously we're happy to get the win," UW head coach Tina Samara said. "We knew we needed it today. We started out with a rough situation with a couple players out of the lineup. But we've said it all year to the players who haven't been in the lineup as much to always be ready and this was one of those situations where we had to put some people in the hat that hadn't been in it very much and I just think it's really great that they stepped in and took care of business."

Ekaterina Stepanova and Sydney Rider got off to a quick start on the doubles courts as they took care of Ksenija Tihomirova and Chloe Lee, 6-0. However, Rutgers responded by picking up a victory on court one as Gina Li and Mariam Zein knocked off Lauren Chypyha and Maria Avgerinos, 6-3.

After splitting the first two matches, the doubles point came down to the third and final match as Kelsey Grambeau and Kendall Kirsch took on Lindsey Kayati and Farris Cunningham. Wisconsin got out to an early lead but were unable to hold on as Rutgers came from behind to win the match, 6-4, and claim the doubles point for the Scarlet Knights.

"I'm not really sure what happened in doubles," Samara added. "We won 6-0 on court 2 and were up 4-1 on court 3 and then kind of went away and that's always scary to see because you don't know what's going to happen when you move into singles."

After failing to pick up the doubles point, the Badgers had to take control on the singles courts in order to pick up the win, and take control is exactly what they did.

Stepanova, who entered the match ranked 89th in the ITA rankings, continued her dominating stretch as she picked up her sixth straight victory by knocking off Lee, 6-2, 6-2.

Kirsch and Rider followed suit with 6-3, 6-4 and 6-4, 6-4 victories over Tihomorova and Kayati, respectively, extending Wisconsin's lead to 3-1.

Freshman, Caroline Hall, who replaced injured Maria Avgerinos, clinched the win for the Badgers with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Farris Cunningham. It was Hall's first career Big Ten victory.

Grambeau added another point for the Badgers as she knocked off Tihomirova, 7-5, 6-4.

54th-ranked Chypyha rounded out the impressive day on the singles courts and clinched the 6-1 victory for the Badgers as she knocked off Gina Li, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.

"I'm happy to see that we took six singles matches," Samara said of sweeping the singles matches. "We wanted to take all six before the match but certainly after how we played in doubles, I felt the best way to fix what happened was to go out and take all six singles matches and I was happy we were able to do that. Hopefully we can fix some of these things Sunday and have some healthier bodies but again, I'm just happy to walk away with a win."

Wisconsin will round out their 2016 regular season as they celebrate senior day on Sunday, April 24, as the Badgers host Maryland. The match is set to begin at 10 a.m. (CT) at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.  
    
Results
Wisconsin 6 - Rutgers 1
Doubles
1. Li/Zein (RUT) def. Chypyha/Avgerinos (UW), 6-3
2. Stepanova/Rider (UW) def. Tihomirova/Lee (RUT), 6-0
3. Kayati/Cunningham (RUT) def. Grambeau/Kirsch (UW), 6-4

Singles
1. Lauren Chypyha (UW) def. Gina Li (RUT), 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
2. Ekaterina Stepanova (UW) def. Chloe Lee (RUT), 6-2, 6-2
3. Kendall Kirsch (UW) def. Ksenija Tihomirova (RUT), 6-3, 6-4
4. Kelsey Grambeau (UW) def. Mariam Zein (RUT), 7-5, 6-4
5. Sydney Rider (UW) def. Lindsey Kayati (RUT), 6-4, 6-4
6. Caroline Hall (UW) def. Farris Cunningham (RUT), 6-2, 7-5