Buckeyes Square Off vs. Oklahoma in First Round of NCAA Tournament Friday – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 6, 2015
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?COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio State women’s tennis team is set to square off with Oklahoma in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Tournament at 1 p.m. ET Friday at the Currey Tennis Center in Nashville, Tenn. No. 18 Ohio State (20-6, 10-1 B1G) and No. 42 Oklahoma (14-9, 3-5 Big 12) each earned at-large bids into the tournament and will be joined by No. 4 Vanderbilt and Murray State in Nashville, with the spot in the round of 16 on the line.
TOURNEY TALK
?The Buckeyes will be hosted by No. 4 seed Vanderbilt in the first and second rounds of the 2015 NCAA Women’s Tennis Tournament. Vanderbilt will play Murray State, the Ohio Valley Conference champion, after the conclusion of Ohio State’s match at 4 p.m. ET. The winners of Friday’s matches will compete at 1 p.m. ET Saturday with a chance to advance to round of 16 in the NCAA Championships held May 15-19 at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas. The event will be hosted by Baylor University.
SCHAUB NAMED B1G COACH OF THE YEAR
?Head coach Melissa Schaub was honored as the Big Ten Coach of the Year April 30 by the Big Ten Conference. In her third season at the helm of the Buckeyes, she guided the squad to a second place finish in the Big Ten regular season with a program-best 10 conference victories and a runner-up finish at the Big Ten Tournament in Evanston. Schaub has collected a 49-29 record, two Top 3 Big Ten regular season finishes and two-consecutive NCAA appearances. This is Schaub’s first B1G Coach of the Year and the first for an Ohio State head coach since Chuck Merzbacher in 1999.
SANFORD AND DE SANTIS NAMED TO ALL-BIG TEN TEAM
?Sophomore Gabriella De Santis and freshman Anna Sanford were voted to the All-Big Ten Team. De Santis earned her second career All-Big Ten selection after leading the Buckeyes with a 10-3 record on court one and tied with a team-best nine singles victories vs. B1G opponents. Sanford tallied an 18-14 overall singles record while recording a team best 12 wins at No. 3 doubles. It is Sanford’s first career selection and the second consecutive season an Ohio State freshman has been named to the All-Big Ten team.
SCOUTING OKLAHOMA?
Oklahoma enters the NCAA Tournament with a 14-9 overall record and notched a 3-5 record in the Big 12. The Sooners are led by freshman Lily Miyazaki who has earned a team-high 15 wins this spring with a 15-4 record on court one. Oklahoma fell in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament to Texas Tech, 4-0, before earning an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament. It is Oklahoma’s third-consecutive NCAA appearance.
The match marks the third meeting between Ohio State and Oklahoma. The squads last met Feb. 27, 2011 in the ITA Kickoff Weekend, a 4-0 Buckeye setback. In the first meeting, Ohio State notched a 6-1 victory vs. the Sooners at home Jan. 26, 2008.
A LOOK AT VANDERBILT AND MURRAY STATE?
Vanderbilt, who is fresh off winning its first SEC Tournament title, earned a 19-6 record under head coach Geoff Macdonald this spring and is led by Sydney Campbell, ranked eighth in the latest singles poll, with a 14-9 record on court one. In addition to Campbell, a total of five Vanderbilt players are ranked in the singles poll including No. 42 Astra Sharma, No. 61 Courtney Colton, No. 96 Frances Altick and No. 120 Marie Casares. The roster also features two doubles teams ranked in the top 20: No. 18 Ashleign Antal and Sharma and No. 20 Colton and Campbell. It is the Commodores’ 21st straight NCAA appearance and second time in a row hosting the opening rounds.
Murray State earned its second-consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament as the automatic qualifier from the Ohio Valley Conference after claiming the conference tournament title. The Racers are led Andrea Eskauriatza, an All-OVC First Team selection, who leads the team with a 21-3 overall record and 14 wins at No. 1 singles. It is the second-straight year Murray State has met Vanderbilt in the first round.
OHIO STATE VS. THE BIG 12?
The Buckeyes are 2-2 vs. Big 12 teams this spring with wins vs. West Virginia and Texas. The Buckeyes started their spring campaign with a 7-0 shutout victory vs. West Virginia and posted a 4-0 win at Texas in the first meeting between the programs April 14. Ohio State snapped its home victory streak when it suffered a 4-0 loss to Baylor March 1. The Buckeyes fell in semifinal action of the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic to Texas Tech, 4-1, on Feb. 21.
BUCKEYES IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
?The Buckeyes were one of 32 teams to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament last Tuesday. It is Ohio State’s second-straight selection and 12th NCAA appearance in program history. Ohio State is one of four Big Ten teams to make the tournament, joining Michigan, Northwestern and Purdue. The Buckeyes have faced nine NCAA tournament bound teams this season and are 5-6 vs. those teams.
BUCKEYES IN B1G TOURNAMENT
?Ohio State made a championship run at the 2015 Big Ten Tournament at the end of April. The second-seeded Buckeyes, who earned a first-round bye, defeated No. 7 seed Purdue in the quarterfinals, 4-0, before posting a 4-1 victory vs. host Northwestern in the semifinals to advance to the championship match for the first time since 2004.
The Buckeyes met Michigan in the championship match, dropping a 4-0 decision to the Wolverines. The freshman tandem of Anna Sanford and Olivia Sneed notched a tiebreaker victory at No.3 doubles before the Wolverines claimed the next two doubles matches to gain 1-0 advantage. De Santis, Sanford and Angeles Paz dropped singles matches to three ranked opponents en route to the loss. The match will be televised by BTN at 7:30 p.m. ET May 12.
IN THE RECORD BOOKS?
Ohio State has earned several program records this spring. Notably, the 20 team wins ties the most in program history, while the 10 conference victories is a program-best. The Buckeyes went on a program-best 11-match win steak from March 6 to April 14 and tied the highest ITA ranking in program history at No. 17.
