NCAA Tournament Starts Friday for the Buckeyes
5/4/2023 4:11:00 PM | Women's Tennis
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State women's tennis team, the No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament, will host first and second round matches this weekend at the Auer Tennis Complex in Columbus, Ohio. Admission and parking are free for all matches and live scoring and video will be available.
Ohio State (20-7, 10-1 B1G) will face Xavier (14-7, 3-0 BIG EAST) at 1 p.m. Friday, preceded by the other first-round match between Vanderbilt (15-11, 7-8 SEC) and ETSU (19-7, 6-1 SoCon) at 10 a.m. The winners will meet at 4 p.m. Saturday in the second round for a spot in the Super Regional at a campus site.
Buckeyes and the NCAA Tournament
- Ohio State is making the ninth consecutive and 19th overall NCAA Tournament appearance in program history.
- This is the fifth time the Buckeyes have been selected to host first and second round matches. The squad topped Youngstown State and UCLA in 2016 as the tournament's No. 3 seed and in 2017 defeated Buffalo and Notre Dame when it was seeded fourth. In 2021 as the No. 15 seed the Buckeyes beat UIC and Vanderbilt in Columbus. Last season, the No. 10 seed Buckeyes topped Illinois State before falling to Vanderbilt.
- 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 10-8 in NCAA play and have Round of 16 (2021), quarterfinal (2016) and semifinal (2017) appearances.
- Eight Buckeyes have played in at least one NCAA tournament singles and/or doubles dual match.
- Isabelle Boulais: 6 singles (1-3, 2 UF), 6 doubles (3-2, 1 UF)
- Kolie Allen: 5 singles (0-4, 1 UF), 6 doubles (3-2, 1 UF)
- Irina Cantos Siemers: 5 singles (3-1, 1 UF), 5 doubles (3-2)
- Sydni Ratliff: 2 singles (2-0), 2 doubles (1-1)
- Lucia Marzal: 4 singles (2-0, 2 UF), 4 doubles (2-1, 1 UF)
- Madeline Atway: 1 singles (1-0)
- Shelly Bereznyak: 1 singles (1-0)
- Kathleen Jones: 1 doubles (0-1)
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.
Buckeyes vs. the 2023 Columbus Teams
- Ohio State is 4-0 all-time vs. Xavier, including a 6-1 win in Columbus last season.
- The Buckeyes have never faced ETSU.
- Against Vanderbilt, the Buckeyes are 5-2. The teams met in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Columbus the last two seasons. Ohio State won the 2021 matchup 4-3 and the Commodores were victorious in 2022, 4-2.
- Last year, Xavier and Vanderbilt met in Columbus in the first round.
In the Rankings
- Ohio State is 10th in the ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings for the second straight week. 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.
- Vanderbilt is ranked 29th as a team and has three ranked singles players – No. 24 Celia Belle Mohr, No. 93 Bridget Stammel and No. 123 Anna Ross. Mohr and Marcella Cruz are 44th in doubles.
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.
Buckeye This and That
- Ohio State enters the NCAA Tournament 20-7 overall. The squad was 2-1 at the Big Ten Tournament last weekend, with 4-0 victories over Nebraska and Illinois before falling to Michigan in the final, 4-2.
- Lucia Marzal and Shelly Bereznyak were named to the Big Ten All-Tournament Team.
- The Buckeye squad has a 13-1 home record, is 4-2 on the road and 3-4 on neutral courts.
- Marzal leads the Buckeyes with an 18-2 dual match ledger. Bereznyak is 14-1 and Irina Cantos Siemers is 15-5. Danielle Willson is 10-1 in dual matches and Sydni Ratliff is 10-6, with Kolie Allen 10-7.
- Bereznyak is on a team-best seven-match winning streak in completed matches.
- Four Buckeyes have hit the 20-win mark overall – Marzal (25), Ratliff (22), Cantos Siemers (22) and Bereznyak (20).
- In doubles, the tandem of Allen and Danielle Willson is first for the squad with a 13-6 mark in dual matches. Bereznyak and Isabelle Boulais are 10-5 as a tandem.
- Allen has a team-high 15 victories in doubles dual action, with Willson second with 13.
- 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.
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