No. 10 Buckeyes Start Dual Season with Top 10 Matchups
1/20/2022 11:09:37 AM | Women's Tennis
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 10 Ohio State women’s tennis team begins dual match play in North Carolina this weekend. The Buckeyes will take on No. 6 Duke at 6 p.m. Friday in Durham and No. 8 North Carolina State at noon Sunday in Raleigh.
Ohio State at Duke – Scoring
Ohio State at NC State – Video | Scoring
Buckeyes vs. …
Blue Devils
- Ohio State and Duke both kicked off 2022 in Ann Arbor last weekend at the Michigan Invitational individual event.
- Duke was 18-7 in 2021 and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals before suffering a 4-1 loss to North Carolina.
- Duke has four ranked singles players – No. 15 Chloe Beck, No. 26 Emma Jackson, No.48 Elizabeth Coleman and No. 73 Georgia Drummy. In doubles, Kelly Chen and Eliza Omirou are No. 10, Beck and Margaryta Bilokin are ranked 20th and Beck and Coleman are 60th.
- Ohio State won the last matchup between the Buckeyes and Blue Devils, posting a 4-2 win in Columbus Jan. 31, 2020. Current Buckeye Kathleen Jones posted singles and doubles victories in the home win over Dukes, with current seniors Isabelle Boulais and Kolie Allen dropping close matches in singles and pairing up at No. 1 doubles. Irina Cantos Siemers had her singles matchup suspended when the match was clinched and was part of a doubles victory.
- The teams met in the ITA Team Indoor Championship in 2019, a 4-3 Blue Devil victory, with Allen and Boulais both winning in singles in the match and Luna Dormet dropping a three-set match. Boulais, Allen and Dormet also competed in doubles in the match.
- Friday will be the fifth match between the teams in Durham, along with three neutral site matchups and one match in Columbus.
Wolfpack
- NC State started the 2022 season at the individual Miami Spring Invite and will host Princeton Saturday before facing the Buckeyes Sunday.
- The Buckeyes and Wolfpack have met just once, a 7-2 Ohio State victory March 2, 1991 in Raleigh.
- The Wolfpack was 20-6 last season and reached the NCAA semifinals, falling to eventual national champion Texas.
- Ranked singles players for NC State include No. 8 Jaeda Daniel, No. 24 Alana Smith and No. 25 Abigail Rencheli, with the tandem of Daniel and Smith ranked 21st in doubles.
In the Rankings
- The Buckeyes were ranked 10th in the ITA Preseason Top 25 Coaches Poll, voted on by the ITA National Ranking Committee, and remained No. 10 this week. The 12 ITA region chairs comprise the committee.
- In the individual rankings that were released at the end of the fall season, Irina Cantos Siemers was No. 6 in singles, with Lucia Marzal No. 72, Luna Dormet No. 113 and Sydni Ratliff tied for 123. Cantos Siemers and Ratliff were ranked No. 29 in doubles.
- Cantos Siemers is the second-highest ranked player in program history, behind only Francesca Di Lorenzo who spent time ranked first.
- Ranked nonconference teams in the preseason Top 25 on the Buckeyes’ spring schedule include No. 2 Pepperdine, No. 6 Duke, No. 8 NC State, No. 21 LSU or No. 22 Tennessee and (possibly) No. 23 Princeton, along with Oklahoma State which is receiving votes.
Buckeye This and That
- Ohio State started the year in Ann Arbor last weekend, playing in the Michigan Invitational, a hidden dual style tournament. Irina Cantos Siemers led the Buckeyes with a 3-0 singles record, with Sydni Ratliff and Isabelle Boulais both winning twice.
- Irina Cantos Siemers led the Buckeyes with 15 singles wins through tournament play, with Lucia Marzal and Madeline Atway tied for second with 12 singles wins each and Sydni Ratliff recording 10. In doubles, Ratliff had a team-high 12, followed by Cantos Siemers with nine; the tandem paired up for a Buckeye-best 8-3 record in tournament action.
- Last year, the Buckeyes were the Big Ten regular season co-champion with a 15-1 B1G record and won the tournament title. The squad was 23-4 overall and reached the NCAA Round of 16 after hosting first and second round matches.
The Schedule Ahead
- Ohio State will host ITA Kickoff Weekend matches Jan. 29-30. The Buckeyes will take on Oklahoma State in the first round at 10 a.m., with LSU and Tennessee meeting in the other match at 1 p.m. The winners (1 p.m.) and losers (10 a.m.) will meet on day two, at with the site winner advancing to ITA National Team Indoor Championship. FULL SCHEDULE
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