COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State women’s tennis team has received an at-large berth into the 2019 NCAA Championship and will travel to Nashville for the opening rounds of the tournament. The No. 25-ranked Buckeyes will face No. 39 Georgia Tech in the first round at 1 p.m. ET Friday. Host No. 7-ranked Vanderbilt, the No. 8 overall seed, will face Miami (Ohio) in the other first round matchup at 4 p.m. ET. The winners will meet in the second round match at 2 p.m. ET Saturday. Live scoring and video from all matches will be available HERE.
“We are excited,” Melissa Schaub, Ohio State head coach, said. “To be able to play in the postseason and get this experience is something we don’t overlook. Every match around the country is going to be good. At this point in the season you have to play with a little extra spark and we will do our best to make that happen.”
The winner from the Nashville site advances to the super regional round on campus sites May 10 or 11. The final eight teams will travel to the USTA National Campus in Orlando, with quarterfinals May 17, semifinals May 18 and the championship May 19.
The selection marks Ohio State’s sixth-straight trip to the NCAA tournament and the 16th appearance for the program overall. It is the second stretch of six-consecutive berths, matching the streak from 1999-04.
The Buckeyes are 19-6 this season and finished the year tied for third in the Big Ten with an 8-3 conference ledger. Three Buckeyes – Isabelle Boulais, Shiori Fukuda and Kolie Allen – have been ranked by the ITA in singles throughout the spring, while the doubles tandems of Boulais and Fukuda and Boulais and Danielle Wolf have been in the doubles rankings. Allen leads the team with 19 dual match wins, followed by Fukuda with 17 and Luna Dormet with 16. In doubles, Boulais and Wolf are 5-2, with Allen and Andrea Ballinger 5-3.
The Buckeyes and Georgia Tech met earlier this season when the Yellow Jackets hosted ITA Kick-Off Weekend. Ohio State topped Georgia Tech, 4-0, to advance to ITA National Indoors. Ohio State is 4-3 all-time vs. Georgia Tech, including an NCAA Tournament Round of 16 victory in 2017 in Tulsa, Okla.
This is the third time Ohio State will play in the NCAA Tournament in Nashville. In 2015, the Buckeyes fell to Oklahoma, 4-3, on Vanderbilt’s home courts and last season Ohio State lost to Clemson, 4-1, in Nashville.
