No. 4 Ohio State Heads to Athens for NCAA Quarterfinals

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 3 seed and No. 4 ranked Ohio State women's tennis team is headed to the Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga., the host site of the final three rounds of the NCAA Championship this week.

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In the quarterfinals, the Buckeyes will face No. 11 seed and No. 11 ranked Pepperdine at 1 p.m. Friday. The winner will take on the winner of a match between No. 2 Auburn and No. 10 LSU at 4 or 7 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals. The final will be played at 7 p.m. Sunday.

The Buckeyes are 26-4 on the year and topped No. 14 Vanderbilt in the Super Regionals Saturday in Columbus. The Waves are 21-4 this season and coming off a 4-3 win at No. 6-seed Oklahoma in Super Regionals. Ohio State and Pepperdine met in Malibu, Calif., March 11, with the Waves winning 4-0.

Ohio State and the NCAA Tournament

Ohio State is making the program's third appearance in the NCAA quarterfinals. The 2016 squad was the first to reach the fourth round of the national tournament, where it fell to Oklahoma State 4-2 in Tulsa, Okla. In Athens, Ga., the next season, Ohio State posted a 4-0 win over Texas Tech to reach the semifinals for the first time.
Overall, the Buckeyes are making the 12th consecutive and 22nd overall NCAA Tournament appearance.
To open this year's NCAA Tournament, the No. 3 seed Buckeyes topped Youngstown State and Notre Dame both 4-0 and then defeated No. 14 Vanderbilt 4-1 in the Super Regionals, with the first three matches in Columbus.
This was the eighth time overall, and the sixth year in a row, the Buckeyes were selected to host first and second round matches as a Top 16 seed and it is the fourth time the team is seeded among the top four (No. 3 in 2017, No. 4 in 2016 and 2025).
This season was the third time in the last four years the Buckeyes advanced to the Super Regional round. The squad advanced to the Round of 16 at the final site three times (2016, 2017, 2021).
Under head coach Melissa Schaub, the Buckeyes are 18-11 in NCAA play and have Round of 16/Super Regional (2021, 2023, 2025), quarterfinal (2016, 2026) and semifinal (2017) appearances.
The team's first NCAA appearance was in 1996. The Buckeyes 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).
In the regular season this year, Ohio State faced five of the other seven teams that reached the Elite Eight, with wins over Texas A&M and North Carolina at ITA Indoors and NC State at home and losses to Pepperdine on the road and Georgia in the final at ITA Indoors. The other schools are Auburn and LSU.

Buckeyes vs. Waves

Ohio State is 3-3 all-time vs. Pepperdine, with a 1-1 ledger in Columbus, 2-1 mark at neutral sites and 0-1 record on the road in Malibu, Calif.
The teams met on Pepperdine's home courts March 11, with the Waves posting a 4-0 win. In 2024, Ohio State fell at home 4-2 March 8, while the Buckeyes posted a 5-2 home win Feb. 27, 2022.
March 4, 2017, Ohio State and Pepperdine met in a neutral site match in Tempe, Ariz., with Ohio State prevailing 6-1, and the Buckeyes were 4-3 winners in the first round of ITA Kickoff Weekend Jan. 22, 2016 at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas. The first match between the teams was in Madison, Wis., at ITA National Team Indoors, when the Waves won 6-1 in the first round Feb. 15, 2001.
The Waves have four ranked singles players – No. 35 Anastasiia Grechkina, No. 40 Ziva Falkner, No. 48 Sonja Zhiyenbayeva and No. 121 Duru Soke. In doubles, Falkner and Zhiyenbayeva are ranked 16th.

Buckeye This and That

Ohio State is 26-4 on the year and has 13 shutout victories, including in eight of the last 11 matches.
Eight Buckeyes have posted a singles win in NCAA Tournament play this season. Nao Nishino is the only Buckeye with two victories, with wins against Notre Dame and Vanderbilt. Alessia Cau, Flora Johnson and Luciana Perry all won against Youngstown State and Hephzibah Oluwadare and Audrey Spencer joined Nishino with wins vs. Notre Dame. Sophia Cisse-Ignatiev and Teah Chavez notched the other singles wins against Vandy alongside Nishino.
The doubles teams of Perry/Johnson and Cisse-Ignatiev/Spencer are each 3-0 in the NCAA Tournament, with wins vs. the Penguins, Irish and Commodores.
This is the sixth year in a row, and the ninth time in program history, the Buckeyes have reached the 20-win mark. The 26 wins this year are the third-most in school history. The 2017 team ranks first with 32 wins and the 2016 squad recorded 31 victories.
Nishino (17-5) leads the Buckeyes in dual victories with 17 and is first overall with 31 victories on the year.
Spencer (16-2) and Chavez (16-3) are next with 16 dual wins each, with Perry (14-4) notching 14.
Chavez, Perry and Spencer are all tied for second with 22-6 records overall.
As a team, the Buckeyes are 94-28 in singles in dual matches. The squad is 20-2 on court four, 16-2 on court one, 16-5 on court two and 16-6 on court six, with a 14-4 mark on court five and 12-9 ledger on court three.
The Buckeyes have won the doubles point in 14 of the last 16 matches. The tandem of Johnson and Perry leads Ohio State with a 16-3 mark this spring, while Cisse-Ignatiev and Spencer are 13-4 in dual play. Courts one and three each have 16 wins in dual action and court two has posted 12 victories this spring.
Ohio State made the program's first appearance in the ITA National Team Indoors final this year, downing Duke, North Carolina and Texas A&M before falling to Georgia in the championship match, 4-3.
The ITA announced Ohio State will serve as a host school for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in both 2027 and 2028. A joint host with Michigan, both schools will host opening rounds of play each year. Michigan will host the semifinals and final in 2027 and Ohio State will host the semifinals and final in 2028. Host schools are automatically in the 16-team tournament field.
Melissa Schaub, the Buckeyes' all-time leader in coaching wins with a 289-89 record, is in her 14th year at the helm of the Buckeyes. Associate head coach Adam Cohen has been on the staff since the 2014-15 campaign. Irina Cantos Siemers, the Buckeyes' all-time leader in singles (127) and combined singles/doubles wins (224) is in her second season on the staff after a five-year playing career with the Buckeyes.

In the Rankings

The Buckeyes are ranked fourth in the most recent ITA team rankings, their 12th straight release in the Top 5, reaching as high as No. 2
The squad started the season No. 13 and was No. 12 in the second poll, moving to No. 10 Jan. 28.
In the singles rankings last week, Luciana Perry and Teah Chavez remained in the Top 5 at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively. It was the eighth straight release Ohio State has had two of the nation's Top 5 ranked singles players.
Earlier this season, Chavez and Perry became the second and third Buckeyes to earn a spot in the singles Top 3, joining Francesca Di Lorenzo, who was as high as No. 1 in 2016 and '17. Chavez has been as high as No. 2, with Perry reaching No. 3.
Perry has been in the Top 10 since Dec. 20, 2024 and Chavez has been in the Top 20 since the final rankings of 2025.
In singles, Nao Nishino was 76th and Audrey Spencer was No. 123 in the most recent rankings.
In doubles, the duo of Flora Johnson and Perry was a season-best 23rd, with the tandem of Hephzibah Oluwadare and Chavez 34th and Spencer and Nishino No. 85.
Fourteen teams the Buckeyes have faced this season were ranked in the Top 25 at the time of the match, including three in the Top 5. In the most recent rankings, eight Buckeye opponents were in the Top 15 - No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 5 North Carolina, No. 7 Virginia, No. 8 NC State, No. 11 Pepperdine, No. 12 Michigan, No. 13 USC and No. 15 Duke.

Buckeyes and the B1G

The Buckeyes won the Big Ten regular season championship with a 12-1 conference record, with the lone loss on the road at USC.
The squad reached the final of the Big Ten Tournament in Columbus with wins over Illinois and UCLA. The Buckeyes fell to Michigan in the final, 4-2.
Sophia Cisse-Ignatiev and Nao Nishino both earned a spot on the Big Ten All-Tournament Team.
Teah Chavez was selected the Big Ten Player of the Year, Luciana Perry and Flora Johnson were co-winners of the inaugural Big Ten Doubles Team of the Year award and Melissa Schaub was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the fifth time.
Chavez and Perry were unanimous First Team All-Big Ten selections for the second year in a row and Perry is now a three-time honoree. Sophia Cisse-Ignatiev, Nishino and Audrey Spencer were all selected Second Team All-Big Ten and Hephzibah Oluwadare was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. Megan Basil was recognized with the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award for Ohio State.

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