Women’s Tennis Falls to No. 2 Georgia, 5-0 – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/14/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 14, 2000
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 26 Ohio State women’s tennis team fell to No. 2 Georgia, 5-0, in the second round of the NCAA Championship, Sunday in Athens, Ga. Ohio State is eliminated from the tournament and ends its season with a mark of 18-8, while the Lady Bulldogs improve to 23-2 overall and advance to the Sweet Sixteen of the tournament.
The Lady Bulldogs claimed five-consecutive singles matches to win the match. At No. 1, Ohio State’s Kristy Dascoli (Jr., Bradenton, Fla./Bradenton Academy), ranked No. 40, fell to No. 5-ranked Aarthi Venkatesan and Monica Rincon (So., Lapeer, Mich./Lapeer West) fell to No. 10 Esther Knox at No. 2. Rincon kept it close in the first set, losing, 6-4, before falling, 6-2, in the second.
At No. 3, Michelle Matko (So., Aurora, Ill./Aurora West) was defeated by No. 55 Marissa Catlin in two sets and Sadhaf Pervez (Fr., Warren, N.J./Watchung Hills) lost to No. 33 Lori Grey at No. 4. Claudia Castro (So., Dublin, Ohio) fell at No. 6 singles to Anne Nguyen and Laura Maloney’s (Jr., Barrington, Ill.) match at No. 5 against Kelly Baskin was suspended after the Lady Bulldogs claimed their fifth point. No doubles matches were played after Georgia clinched the win.
“Georgia is a very good team, but the number one thing is that I’m proud of this group for the way that they played them,” Ohio State head coach Chuck Merzbacher said. “We’re a little disappointed because we wanted to push Georgia a little more, but they have a lot of talent at every position. We are still trying to build our program and we’re getting better each year. It’s great to be able to come down here and play the possible national champions.”
The Buckeyes’ end their season as a team today. Individually, Dascoli will compete in the NCAA Singles Championship and Dascoli and Rincon will participate in the NCAA Doubles Championship. The tournaments will be held May 22-26 at Pepperdine in Malibu, Calif.
2000 NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship Regional – Second Round No. 2 Georgia 5, No. 26 Ohio State 0 May 14, 2000, Athens, Ga. Singles No. 1 Aarthi Venkatesan, UGA def. Kristy Dascoli, OSU 6-1, 6-2 No. 2 Esther Knox, UGA def. Monica Rincon, OSU 6-4, 6-2 No. 3 Marissa Catlin, UGA def. Michelle Matko, OSU 6-2, 6-1 No. 4 Lori Grey, UGA Sadhaf Pervez, OSU 6-1, 6-0 No. 5 Kelly Baskin, UGA def. Laura Maloney, OSU 6-1, 5-5, susp. No. 6 Anne Nguyen, UGA def. Claudia Castro, OSU 6-1, 6-0
Doubles No. 1 Dascoli/Rincon, OSU vs. Venkatesan/Knox, UGA DNP No. 2 Pervez/Maloney, OSU vs. Catlin/Grey, UGA DNP No. 3 Castro/Matko, OSU vs. Mellis/Nguyen, UGA DNP
–GO BUCKS!–
