Women’s Tennis Travels to Florida for Two Matches – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 18, 2007
Columbus, Ohio – After a week off, the Ohio State women’s tennis team (9-4, 1-0 Big Ten) heads to Fort Myers, Fla., for two matches. The Buckeyes will take on No. 16 Wichita State at 10 a.m. and No. 11 (Division II) Florida Gulf Coast at 3 p.m. Monday.
Last Time Out
The Buckeyes last played March 2 and 4, downing DePaul, 6-1, and Wisconsin, 7-0, at Jesse Owens West Tennis Center in Columbus.
Scouting Wichita State
Wichita State is 12-0 this season and 1-0 in Missouri Valley Conference play. The squad began the year ranked 62nd nationally.
The Shockers have wins over six ranked teams this season – No. 66 SMU, No. 30 Tulsa, No. 63 Indiana State, No. 44 Boise Staet, No. 56 Nevada and No. 68 Nebraska.
WSU had an 18-day layoff before returning to action Friday with home wins over Idaho (6-1) and Central Connecticut (7-0).
Madina Rakhim leads the squad with an 11-1 mark at the No. 1 singles position this spring. She pairs with Florentina Hanisch at the No. 1 doubles spot. The duo is 10-2.
Scouting Florida Gulf Coast
Florida Gulf Coast, a Division II independent, is 6-4 on the year and played Chicago Sunday before hosting the Buckeyes Monday and Wichita State Tuesday.
The Eagles last played March 14-15, with wins over Fairleigh Dickinson (9-0) and Valparaiso (7-2), respectively.
Maria Braniecka is ranked 34th nationally to lead FGCU. She is 6-5 this season.
Ahead of the Pack
Leading the Buckeyes in overall singles wins so far this season is freshman Christina Keesey, with 16. Sophomore Julie Voss and freshman Ally Mueller are tied for second with 14 each.
In the dual season, Keesey has a team-best nine wins, followed by Mueller and Voss with eight each.
In doubles, sophomore Julie Blackmore has a team-best 14 wins, followed by seniors Ciara Finucane, Kristin Messmer and Sonia Ruzimovsky with 13 each.
In the Conference
The Buckeyes won their Big Ten opener, shutting out Wisconsin, 7-0, to stop a three-game losing streak against the Badgers. After their two matches in Florida, the Buckeyes will play three-consecutive conference matches and Big Ten teams in five of the next six outings.
The Best
The Buckeyes are 12-1 combined at No. 6 singles this season, with their lone loss to Marshall. Julie Voss is 6-0 at the sixth spot, while Angela DiPastina is 5-1 and Ciara Finucane is 1-0.
The squad is 12-1 at No. 3 doubles, with the duo of Caitlin O’Keefe and Sonia Ruzimovsky leading the way with a 10-2 mark. The squad has combined for a 11-2 mark at the No. 2 doubles spot.
Another Blank
Six of the Buckeyes’ nine wins this season have been 7-0 shutouts. The squad opened the year with three-consecutive whitewashes (vs. Bowling Green, vs. Cincinnati, at West Virginia) and blanked Miami (Ohio) Feb. 11, Eastern Kentucky Feb. 25 and Wisconsin March 4 . It is the most shutouts in a season since the Buckeyes had seven 7-0 wins in 2001-02. The squad last year had five shutouts in 26 matches.
Staying Perfect
Sophomore Julie Voss is 8-0 in singles this spring, with a 6-0 ledger at No. 6 and 1-0 mark at No. 4.
A Key
The Buckeyes have won the doubles point in all nine of their wins this season and in 10 of their 13 matches. The team won the doubles point vs. Marshall Feb. 17, but lost the match.
Happy 50th
Against Cincinnati Jan. 27, senior Sonia Ruzimovsky posted the 50th singles win of her Buckeye career, as she downed Valeriya Dandik in straight sets (6-1, 6-0). Ruzimovsky is second among current Buckeyes with 54 career wins, behind senior Kristin Messmer’s 61 victories.
Ruzimovsky posted her 50th career doubles victory against Louisville Feb. 25. She has a team career-best 54 doubles wins.
Messmer recorded her 50th career doubles win against Wisconsin March 4 and is 50-40 in doubles in her career.
The Rooks make an Impact
The two Buckeye freshmen, Ally Mueller and Christina Keesey, both have played in all 13 matches for the Buckeyes so far this spring. Keesey is 9-4 in singles and 4-1 in doubles. Mueller is 8-4 in singles and 5-3 in doubles in the dual season.
Among the Best
Chuck Merzbacher, Ohio State head coach, has the eighth-ranked recruiting class for 2007, according to rankings compiled by tennisrecruiting.net. The duo of Paloma Escobedo and Cameron Hubbs, who signed NCAA National Letters of Intent in November, will join the Buckeye roster in the fall of 2007.
A panel of junior tennis experts, including journalists, tournament directors, referees and ranking chairmen from across the country, voted on the recruiting classes. Each panelist submitted his/her list of the Top 25 recruiting classes. Schools received 25 points for each first-place vote, 24 points for each second-place vote, down to 1 point for each 25th-place vote.
Escobedo, a native of Houston, Texas, has been ranked as high as 21st nationally among recruits for 2007 and currently is ranked 29th. She is ranked fourth among the gulf states and third in the state of Texas. Escobedo was a member of the Texas Fed Cup team who went undefeated in August at the 2006 UTSA Girl’s 18 Fed Cup Championships and posted a 5-2 record in the same month at the 2006 Girls 18 and Under Super Nationals in San Jose, Calif.
Hubbs, from Omaha, Neb., has been ranked as high as No. 60 in 2007 recruiting lists. She currently is ranked second in the plains states and is first in Nebraska. She is a three-time state champion at Omaha Westside High School. Hubbs is a standout in doubles and has been ranked as high as seventh nationally.
Up Next
The Buckeyes will travel to face Big Ten foes Minnesota Friday and Iowa Sunday (March 25).
