Women’s Tennis: Ohio State Begins Season at William & Mary Invitational – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Buckeyes take on tough opposition in first tournament of the fall season
COLUMBUS, Ohio The Ohio State women’s tennis team will kick off the 2008-09 season this weekend at the William and Mary Invitational in Williamsburg, Va. The event runs Friday through Sunday and will feature three brackets for both singles and doubles.
“We’re excited to get back into the swing of things,” Chuck Merzbacher, Ohio State head coach said. “The field is really competitive and it will be a tough challenge for us right here out of the gate. William and Mary has a lot of tennis tradition and it’s a terrific opportunity for us to play there this weekend.”
Teams competing at the event include Arkansas, Boston College, Elon, Harvard, Miami (Fla.), Miami (Ohio), Memphis, Penn State, Richmond, William and Mary and Winthrop.
Three of the teams, Arkansas, Miami (Fla.) and William and Mary, all finished last season in the Top 25 of the final team rankings.
THE RUNDOWN
The Scarlet and Gray will look to top the 2007-08 campaign in which they made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2004, scored a record 19 dual match wins and placed fifth in a competitive Big Ten.
The effort will be strengthened by the return of all but one letterwinner from a season ago, including three seniors, Julie Blackmore, Angela DiPastina and Julie Voss. Combined, the three have accounted for more than 150 singles victories during their tenure at Ohio State.
Also returning is junior Christina Keesey, as well as the dynamic sophomore tandem of Cami Hubbs and Paloma Escobedo. All three collected more than 20 wins in both singles and doubles in 2007-08, and they will again anchor the heart of both singles and doubles lineups.
The Buckeyes also welcome two newcomers, Kirsten Flower and Kelsey Haviland. Flower, a native of Upper Arlington and a former five-star recruit, comes to Ohio State after two seasons at Georgia Tech. Haviland, a graduate of Oakwood High School in Dayton, joins the Buckeyes after a successful prep career.
LOOKING DOWN THE ROAD
The fall season will provide a tough challenge for the Buckeyes. Following the William and Mary Invitational, the team will travel to the Hoosier Fall Invitational Oct. 3-5. During the same span, junior Kirsten Flower will compete among the nation’s best at the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships.
The ITA Midwest Championships follow that Oct. 23-28 in East Lansing, Mich., on the campus of Michigan State. The Buckeyes will then try to qualify individuals for the ITA National Indoor Championships Nov. 5-8. The team will then go on a two month break before resuming competition in the spring season Jan. 24.
FLOWER NATIONALLY RANKED
Junior Kirsten Flower has been ranked as the No. 41 singles player in the country according to the 2008-09 Intercollegiate Tennis Association preseason rankings. Flower will make her first appearance as a Buckeye Sept. 30 at the Riviera/ITA All-American Tournament in Pacific Palisades, Calif., which features the elite players in collegiate tennis.
Flower, who transferred to Ohio State from Georgia Tech this offseason, has been ranked in the preseason singles poll all three years of her collegiate career. She is the first Buckeye ranked in the ITA singles poll since Lindsay Williams was ranked No. 98 in her senior season in 2004. She is also the highest ranked Buckeye since current assistant coach Sadhaf Pervez was No. 38 in February of 2003.
HALL OF FAMERS
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association Women’s Hall of Fame will induct four new members during a ceremony held Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Sadler Center at the College of William and Mary.
The ITA Women’s Hall of Fame was established in 1995 and honors outstanding collegiate players and coaches, as well as players who attended college and later had a significant impact on women’s tennis. The Hall of Fame is located at the College of William and Mary’s McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center.
The Class of 2008 consists of four former players including doubles legend Gigi Fernandez from Clemson University, Janice Metcalf Cromer of the University of Redlands, Alice Tym of the University of Miami and Wendy White Prausa of Rollins College.
CONNECTIONS
Meredith Geiger-Walton, the newly hired head tennis coach at William and Mary was the coach of Buckeye senior Julie Voss while Voss was enrolled at the St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, where Geiger-Walton was the director of the Tennis Academy. Geiger-Walton was a standout player at Arizona State during her collegiate days and went on to play professionally on the WTA tour for three years.
VOSS BLOG
You can follow the team this weekend on OhioStateBuckeyes.com when they travel to Williamsburg, Va., as Buckeye senior Julie Voss will be documenting the team’s activities in a team blog. Check back throughout the course of the weekend for updates.
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