Women’s Tennis Begins Season – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/18/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Sept. 18, 2000
The ITA National Clay Courts
Three Buckeyes will be competing in the T. Rowe Price National Intercollegiate Clay Court Championships, the opening leg of the collegiate grand slam, this week. The team of Kristy Dascoli (Sr., Bradenton, Fla./Bradenton Academy) and Monica Rincon (Jr., Lapeer, Mich./West) will compete in the 16-team doubles main draw, while Dascoli will play in the 32-player singles main draw. Rincon and Sadhaf Pervez (So., Warren, N.J./Watchung Hills) will participate in singles qualifying. The qualifying rounds will be held Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 19-20. Each player has to win three rounds to advance to the main draw. The main draw is scheduled for Thursday through Sunday, Sept. 21-24. The tournament will be played at the Suburban Club of Baltimore County in Pikesville, Md.
The Preseason Rankings
In the preseason individual rankings released Sept. 11 by the ITA, Dascoli was ranked No. 33 in singles. The doubles tandem of Dascoli and Rincon is ranked No. 8 in the nation.
Dascoli Last Season
Dascoli earned Big Ten Player of the Year honors for her outstanding play in the 1999-00 season. She ranked second on the team with a mark of 29-11 and was a stellar 19-3 at No. 1 singles in the spring. She also had a strong year in doubles, posting a mark of 24-11 overall and 20-6 in the spring. She ended the season by earning a bid to her third-consecutive NCAA singles championship.
Dascoli/Rincon A Year Ago
Although they have only been playing together since January, the duo of Dascoli and Rincon had a great deal of success last season. They qualified for the NCAA doubles championship and posted a first round upset over the then-No. 8-ranked team from TCU before falling in the second round. The duo was 20-6 overall and put together a 12-match winning streak that was ended in the second round of the NCAA tourney. Pervez as a Freshman
Pervez ranked third on the squad a year ago with an overall mark of 27-14. She led the team in the fall, going 12-4 in the tournament season.
New Additions
The Buckeyes have added two players to the roster for the 2000-01 season. Erica Fisk, from Pike High School in Indianapolis, reached the semifinals of the Indiana state tournament before falling in a third-set tiebreaker. She was an all-conference and all-county honoree. Lindsay Williams, from Beverly Hills, Mich., played scholastically at Birmingham Groves High School. She was a state finalist in 1999, a four-time all-state honoree and regional champion and a three-time league champion. All eight members of last year’s squad return for the Buckeyes.
The Buckeye Coach
Chuck Merzbacher is in his fifth year at the helm for the Buckeyes. His record at OSU is 54-46, while his career mark is 187-109 in 11 seasons. In Merzbacher’s four seasons with the Buckeyes, the team has moved up quickly in the Big Ten, from ninth-place finishes in his first two seasons to a sixth place finish in 1999. The team finished third overall last season and won the program’s first Big Ten regular season championship.
Wrapping Up Last Season
The Buckeyes went 18-8 overall last season, tying the program record for wins in a season. The squad went 9-1 in Big Ten play during the season to claim its first conference regular season title before finishing third in the final conference standings.
Two in a Row
Last year, for the second-consecutive season and the second time in program history, the Buckeyes had a team, singles player and doubles team advance to the NCAA Championships.
The Buckeyes in the 2000 NCAAs
As a team, the Buckeyes advanced to the NCAA Championships for the third time in program history last season. The squad posted the Buckeyes’ first NCAA tournament win with a first-round victory over No. 35 Miami (Fla.), 5-2, before falling to No. 2 and eventual national champion Georgia in the second round, 5-0.
