• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

tBBC OSU Women’s Tennis NCAA Championship Run Ends

jcollingsworth

Guest
OSU Women’s Tennis NCAA Championship Run Ends
jcollingsworth
via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


OSUTEN-150x150.jpg

The Ohio State University’s Women’s Tennis Team’s 2016 NCAA Championship run ended Saturday, May 21st, in Tulsa – falling to the # 12 Oklahoma State University Cowboys, 4-2.

The Buckeyes in the quarterfinals for the first time in Program history were also denied improving on their 16-match winning streak.

For The Ohio State University it has arguably been the best season ever in their history. The team was 31-3, the first time with more than 20 wins in a season, and was ranked in the Top 6 (a program high) since early February, including a moment at No. 1. The squad won the outright Big Ten regular season title with an 11-0 ledger and claimed the first conference tournament title in school history. For the first time, the Buckeyes reached the NCAA Championship quarterfinals and hosted NCAA first and second round matches.

Oklahoma State won on courts one and three to clinch the doubles point. Katrina Adamovic and Vladic Babic defeated Francesca Di Lorenzo and Olivia Sneed, 6-1, to open doubles. On court two, the Buckeyes’ No. 58-ranked team of juniors Gabriella De Santis and Sandy Niehaus topped No. 54 Viktoriya Lushkova and Carla Tur Mari, 7-5, breaking to win the match and improve to 14-1 in dual play. Doubles came down to court one. The No. 9-ranked Buckeye duo of junior Miho Kowase and sophomore Anna Sanford came back from 15-40 down to break and get on serve at five all. The Cowgirls’ team of Maria Alvarez and Kelsey Laurente broke back and then held to win the last two games and claim the match and the doubles point for Oklahoma State.

Oklahoma State won the first two singles matches off the court for a 3-0 lead. On court two, Babic was a 6-4, 6-3 winner over No. 89-ranked Sanford, followed by a 6-1, 6-3 win by Lushkova over No. 96 De Santis.

The Buckeyes tied the match with back to back wins. On court six, Niehaus, ranked 81st, topped Alvarez, 6-2, 7-5. Niehaus was 14-0 in dual play and 19-3 overall this season. Kowase then posted a 6-0, 7-6 (2) win over Laurente on court four to tie the match. In dual play, Kowase was 24-2, with a 30-4 overall mark.

Three Buckeyes will compete for NCAA individual titles. Di Lorenzo is the No. 3 seed in the singles draw, while Sanford and Kowase were selected for the doubles tournament. Singles play starts Wednesday, followed by the start of doubles Thursday. Scoring, video and updated brackets are available on the tournament central page.

Coach Melissa Schaub:It stings right now, obviously. I think that if we can look back on it we had an unbelievable year. These guys fight really hard, but it didn’t go our way today. It hurts, it hurts right now but we do have everybody in our starting lineup coming back next year. If we can focus on that and the kind of year that we had I think in a little bit when this starts to wear off we will be really proud of what we were able to accomplish this year.”

The doubles point was big, we knew that coming in. They have a couple spots that are really tough and I think we fought hard. Ferny (Angeles Paz) fought to the end, maybe had some chances there, but these guys played well. All the credit goes to Oklahoma State and it is going to be a good final four.”

The Buckeyes are deserving of great applause. Their achievements this year was phenomenal.

We are proud of them.

The post OSU Women’s Tennis NCAA Championship Run Ends appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.

Continue reading...
 
Back
Top