Buckeyes to Take on Cardinal in NCAA Super Regionals
5/11/2023 12:55:59 PM | Women's Tennis
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 10 seed Ohio State women’s tennis team heads to California to take on No. 7 Stanford in the NCAA Tournament Super Regionals. The teams will face off at 4 p.m. ET Friday for a spot in the quarterfinals.
No. 10 Ohio State at No. 7 Stanford (4 p.m. ET Friday): Watch & Live Scoring
Ohio State (22-7, 10-1 B1G) downed Xavier and Vanderbilt in the NCAA opening rounds in Columbus last weekend, while Stanford (23-2, 10-0 Pac-12) posted home wins over Weber State and Oklahoma State to advance.
The winner of the Super Regional match will advance to the quarterfinals and take on the winner of a match between No. 2 Texas A&M and No. 15 Tennessee May 17. The semifinals will be played May 19, with the final May 20. The final three rounds of the championship will be played at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.
Buckeyes and the NCAA Tournament
- Ohio State is making the ninth consecutive and 19th overall NCAA Tournament appearance in program history.
- This is the Buckeyes’ fourth trip to the NCAA Round of 16 in program history.
- In the Round of 16, Ohio State posted a win over Georgia Tech in 2016, downed South Carolina in 2017 and fell to Texas in 2021. All three matches were at neutral sites.
- The Buckeyes hosted first and second round matches for the fifth time in school history and are now 9-1 in NCAA matches in Columbus.
- The team’s first NCAA appearance was in 1996. The squad qualified six years in a row from 1999-04, had a three-year stretch from 2008-10 and began the most recent streak in 2014 (with no tournament in 2020).
- Under head coach Melissa Schaub, the Buckeyes are 12-8 in NCAA play and have Round of 16 (2021, ‘23), quarterfinal (2016) and semifinal (2017) appearances.
- Nine Buckeyes have played in at least one NCAA tournament singles and/or doubles dual match.
- Kolie Allen: 6 singles (1-4, 1 UF), 8 doubles (3-3, 2 UF)
- Madeline Atway: 1 singles (1-0)
- Shelly Bereznyak: 3 singles (2-0, 1 UF), 2 doubles (1-1)
- Isabelle Boulais: 8 singles (2-3, 3 UF), 8 doubles (4-3, 1 UF)
- Irina Cantos Siemers: 7 singles (4-1, 2 UF), 7 doubles (5-2)
- Kathleen Jones: 1 doubles (0-1)
- Lucia Marzal: 6 singles (3-0, 3 UF), 5 doubles (3-1, 1 UF)
- Sydni Ratliff: 3 singles (2-1), 3 doubles (2-1)
- Danielle Willson: 2 singles (2-0), 2 doubles (0-1, 1 UF)
In the Opening Rounds
- Ohio State notched victories over Xavier and Vanderbilt at the Auer Tennis Complex in Columbus last weekend to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals.
- Against the Musketeers, Ohio State claimed the doubles point with two 6-1 wins and then posted three straight-set singles wins to down its instate foe. Danielle Willson, Isabelle Boulais and Kolie Allen were all winners vs. Xavier.
- In the match vs. Vanderbilt, the Buckeyes dropped the doubles point, with the point coming down to a tiebreak on court three. Ohio State rallied with four singles wins, all in three sets. Irina Cantos Siemers tied the match, followed by wins from Willson and Lucia Marzal. Vanderbilt closed to 3-2 with a victory but Shelly Bereznyak sealed the win with a court five win.
Buckeyes vs. Cardinal
- Ohio State is 0-2 all-time vs. Stanford.
- The first meeting was a neutral site match in South Bend, Ind., with the Cardinal winning 4-1.
- The teams met in the 2017 NCAA Tournament semifinals, with Stanford prevailing 4-3 in a match that came down to a third set tiebreak on court three. Ohio State was the No. 3 seed in that tournament, with the Cardinal No. 7; the match was played indoors at Georgia Tech in Atlanta because of rain at the host site in Athens, Ga.
In the Rankings
- Ohio State was 10th in the ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings released before the NCAA Tournament started. The squad has been in the Top 10 since the start of computer rankings (Feb. 19).
- The Buckeyes have wins against seven teams currently in the Top 25 – No. 3 Georgia, No. 13 Oklahoma, No. 14 Tennessee, No. 17 Oklahoma State, No. 18 Auburn, No. 22 Wisconsin and No. 23 Arizona State. Ohio State dropped matches to No. 2 Texas A&M (twice), No. 4 NC State, No. 5 Michigan (three times) and No. 20 UCLA.
- Three Buckeyes are ranked in singles, along with a doubles tandem. Irina Cantos Siemers is No. 20, Sydni Ratliff is No. 30 and Shelly Bereznyak is No. 89. As a doubles team, Cantos Siemers and Ratliff are ranked 37th.
- Stanford, ranked sixth as a team, has four ranked singles players – No. 18 Connie Ma, No. 29 Alexandra Yepifanova, No. 44 Angelica Blake and No. 84 Alexis Blokhina. Blake and Blokhina are 16th in doubles.
Buckeye This and That
- Ohio State enters the NCAA Super Regionals 22-7, the fourth-most wins in a single season in school history. The 2017 squad set the record with 32, while the 2016 team won 16. In 2021 the Buckeyes had 23 victories. This is the seventh season with at least 20 wins, with six of the seven under current head coach Melissa Schaub.
- The Buckeyes had a 15-1 home record, are 4-2 on the road and are 3-4 on neutral courts.
- Ohio State players have combined for a 21-2 record on court six and are 20-1 on court five. Court four has picked up 18 wins, with 13 victories on courts one and two and seven on court three.
- Marzal leads the Buckeyes with a 19-2 dual match ledger. Bereznyak is 15-1, Irina Cantos Siemers is 16-5 and Danielle Willson is 12-1 in dual matches.
- Bereznyak is on a team-best eighth-match winning streak in completed matches and Marzal has won her last five completed.
- Four Buckeyes have hit the 20-win mark overall – Marzal (26), Cantos Siemers (23), Sydni Ratliff (22), and Bereznyak (21). Willson and Kolie Allen are just outside with 19 each.
- In doubles, the tandem of Allen and Danielle Willson is first for the squad with a 13-7 mark in dual matches. Bereznyak and Isabelle Boulais are 11-6 as a tandem.
- Allen has a team-high 15 victories in doubles dual action, with Willson and Isabelle Boulais tied for second with 13 each. Cantos Siemers and Bereznyak each have 12 in dual play. Allen is first with 21 doubles wins overall.
- Marzal and Kathleen Jones have been selected for the new NextGen Program in the Ohio State Athletics Department. The full-time, paid opportunity with benefits for graduating student-athletes is designed to provide experience and skill development necessary to position student-athletes to succeed in a career within intercollegiate athletics. Read more about the program HERE.
Siemers and Ratliff Headed Back to NCAA Championships
- Unanimous All-Big Ten selections Irina Cantos Siemers and Sydni Ratliff are at-large selections into the 2023 NCAA Singles Championship. The duo is an alternate for the NCAA doubles tournament.
- Cantos Siemers will be making her third appearance, joining Kristy Dascoli, a four-time qualifier, as the only Buckeyes with more than two trips to the singles championship.
- Ratliff was selected for the second year in a row.
- Cantos Siemers and Ratliff were the Big Ten’s automatic qualifier into the doubles tournament last season.
- The duo are two of seven Buckeyes to appear in both the NCAA singles and doubles championships.
Scarlet and Gray Recognized by B1G
- Senior Irina Cantos Siemers was named the 2023 Big Ten Women’s Tennis Athlete of the Year and earned a spot on the All-Big Ten team alongside sophomore Sydni Ratliff. Both were unanimous all-conference selections.
- Sophomore Shelly Bereznyak was recognized with the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award for Ohio State.
- Cantos Siemers is the fourth Buckeye to earn B1G Player of the Year honors, joining two-time honorees Kristy Dascoli (2000, ’01) and Francesca Di Lorenzo (2016, ’17) and Shiori Fukuda (2020).
- Cantos Siemers is now a three-time unanimous All-Big Ten selection and Ratliff was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year last season.
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