🌰 Buckeye Best – March 13 – March 19

Wrapping up another busy week in Buckeye athletics … 

Women’s basketball, spurred on by a loud crowd of over 6,000, came back from 16 points down to defeat James Madison, 80-66, Saturday to set up a second-round matchup later today at the Schott – 4 p.m. – against North Carolina. Let’s get out and support the team this afternoon.

Game and Ticket Information available at NCAA Tournament Central

Women’s hockey graduate defenseman Sophie Jaques, who was named the 2023 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award winner, presented annually to the top player in Division I hockey. Jaques is the first Buckeye and just the second defenseman to win the award.

Women’s Hockey reached the national title game for the second year in a row with a 3-0 victory Friday over Northeastern in the Frozen Four semifinal before falling a tight 1-0 match Sunday vs. Wisconsin to take NCAA Runner-up honors.

The pistol team defended its Intercollegiate Pistol Championships title and claimed its third consecutive national championship Saturday evening. Katelyn Abeln won individual titles in the three-event aggregate and air pistol events while Maria Tsarik won titles in sport pistol and standard pistol.

The wrestling team finished fourth at the 2023 NCAA wrestling championships, giving coach Tom Ryan his ninth Top 5 finish.

The women’s swimming and diving team made history on Saturday, earning a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, the team’s highest finish in program history. This is the third consecutive year coach Bill Dorenkott’s team has placed in the Top 10; also a program record.

Men’s hockey has earned an at-large berth into the NCAA Championships and will travel to Bridgeport, Conn., for the NCAA East Regional. The Buckeyes will take on Harvard at 2 p.m. Friday with the game televised by ESPNU.

Caley McGinty shot a women’s golf program 18-hole record 63 and the Buckeyes set a new team record by shooting -27 over 54 holes to finish second at the Mountain View Collegiate.

Men’s golf also finished as the runner-up last week in a major tournament, at the Johnnie-O at Sea Island.

The softball team is riding an 11-game winning streak and is 17-7 after completing a nine-day, 12-game spring break trip. The home opener is 4 p.m. Tuesday at Buckeye Field vs. Kent State.

The baseball team has won seven consecutive games, including two opening-weekend wins over Dayton at Bill Davis Stadium, to improve to 11-6 on the year. The Buckeyes unveiled special 1906 throwback, tribute uniforms Sunday.

The women’s gymnastics team finished fourth at the 2023 Big Ten Championships with a final score of 196.975, the highest championship meet score in program history.

The men’s tennis team defeated Michigan yesterday in a rare non-conference match, 4-2, to improve to 12-0 at home, 7-2 vs. ranked teams and 17-2 overall.

The women’s tennis team shut out No. 16 Wisconsin, 7-0, and Minnesota, 4-0, at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center this weekend to improve to 10-5 and 3-0 in the Big Ten.

The men’s and women’s lacrosse teams are each at the start of their conference seasons and are 4-4 and 4-6 overall, respectively.

Men’s volleyball split two home-and-home matches with Ball State and is now 12-9 overall and 5-4 in the MIVA, good for a tie for third place.

The men’s gymnastics team split a tri-meet with Nebraska and Greenville on Friday night in its regular-season finale in Lincoln, Neb.

The track and field teams opened their respective outdoor seasons with nine total wins at the University of South Florida’s Bulls Invitational.