No. 10 Seed Buckeyes Set to Host NCAA Matches
5/6/2022 3:04:19 PM | Women's Tennis
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 10 Ohio State women’s tennis team will host NCAA Tournament First and Second Round matches in Columbus this weekend.
The first round matches Saturday include Xavier taking on Vanderbilt at 10 a.m., followed by a match between the Buckeyes and Illinois State at 1 p.m. The winners will meet in the second round at noon Sunday.
Matches are set to be played outside at the Auer Tennis Complex. In the event of inclement weather, play will be moved inside the Ty Tucker Tennis Center. Check OhioStateBuckeyes.com and the Ohio State women’s tennis social media accounts on match day for location information. Admission and parking will be free for all NCAA matches in Columbus. Live scoring and video, through the Tennis One app, will be available for all matches. Note Ohio State commencement is Sunday, with traffic expected to be heavy in the campus area.
Columbus First and Second Rounds Tournament Central
Ohio State is 19-5 on the year and won the Big Ten regular season title with an 11-0 record in conference matches. The squad reached the Big Ten Tournament final last weekend.
Buckeyes and the NCAA Tournament
- Ohio State is making the eighth consecutive and 18th overall NCAA Tournament appearance in program history.
- This is the fourth 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. Last year as the No. 15 seed the Buckeyes beat UIC and Vanderbilt in Columbus.
- After the two home wins, Ohio State fell in the Round of 16 to eventual national champion Texas in the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
- 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.
- Under head coach Melissa Schaub, the Buckeyes are 9-7 in NCAA play and have Round of 16 (2021), quarterfinal (2016) and semifinal (2017) appearances.
Buckeyes vs. the Columbus Teams
Ohio State vs. Illinois State
- The Buckeyes are 4-0 all-time vs. Illinois State, with the last match in 2000. The Buckeyes won 8-1 in January 2000 and January 1999, 5-1 on the road in February 1991 and 7-2 in a neutral site match in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in March 1986.
- The Redbirds won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament to earn the league’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. The squad is 17-6 on the year. This is the fifth NCAA trip for Illinois State.
Ohio State vs. Xavier
- Ohio State is 4-0 all-time vs. Xavier, all in Columbus, including a 6-1 win March 11.
- The Buckeyes posted 7-0 wins in 2006 and 2010 and a 6-1 victory in 2016.
- The Musketeers, 14-9 this season, are making their third NCAA appearance and the second in a row. The squad won the BIG EAST tournament and also was the league regular season champion.
Ohio State vs. Vanderbilt
- Last season, the Buckeyes and Commodores met in Columbus in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, with Ohio State prevailing, 4-3.
- Ohio State is 5-1 all-time vs. Vanderbilt. The teams met in Nashville in 2020, a 5-2 Commodore victory. The teams faced off twice in 2016, with Ohio State winning 4-3 at ITA National Indoors and 4-2 at home, and the Buckeyes posted a 5-2 road victory in 2017. The first matchup between the teams was a 9-0 Ohio State win in 1976.
- The Buckeyes played at Vanderbilt in three NCAA Tournament trips (2015, 2018, 2019), but suffered first-round losses and did not take on the home team.
- Vanderbilt is making its 27th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and has reached the national semifinals four times since 2015, winning the national title in 2015.
- The Commodores are 16-9 on the year and ranked 30th by the ITA this week. Anna Ross is ranked 46th in singles, while Annesa Lee is No. 87 and Holly Staff is No. 88. In doubles, Ross and Staff are ranked 37th.
- Recapping the 2021 NCAA match between the Buckeyes and Commodores: After taking the doubles point and court one, Vanderbilt held a 2-0 lead. Buckeyes Lisa Hofbauer, Luna Dormet and Isabelle Boulais all won in straight sets to give Ohio State a 3-2 advantage. The Commodores tied the team score at three, leaving court five, which had just started a third set, to decide the match and Buckeye Lucia Marzal provided the clinching point.
In the Rankings
- Ohio State remained at No. 10 in the ITA team rankings this week. The squad has been in the Top 10 all but one week since Feb. 2.
- In the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25 this week, Ohio State is No. 10.
- Nine of the teams the Buckeyes have faced this season are ranked in the ITA Top 20 this week – No. 1 North Carolina, No. 4 Duke, No. 6 North Carolina State, No. 8 Pepperdine, No. 12 Oklahoma State, No. 13 Georgia, No. 14 Auburn, No. 16 Florida and No. 18 Michigan.
- Three Buckeyes and two doubles teams are in the ITA individual rankings released this week. Junior Irina Cantos Siemers is 13th in singles, while senior Isabelle Boulais is No. 41 and freshman Sydni Ratliff is No. 67. The duo of Cantos Siemers and Ratliff is No. 43 and Cantos Siemers and Luna Dormet are No. 87.
Big Ten Honors and NCAA Selections
- Sydni Ratliff was voted Big Ten Freshman of the Year, while Irina Cantos Siemers and Isabelle Boulais were named to the All-Big Ten Team. Kolie Allen received the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award for Ohio State.
- Boulais is now a three-time all-conference selection and Cantos Siemers was recognized for the second straight year. Ratliff is the sixth Buckeye to earn league freshman of the year accolades and the fifth since 2014.
- Cantos Siemers and Boulais were selected for the NCAA Singles Championship, while Cantos Siemers and Ratliff will compete in the doubles tournament. Ratliff is an alternate for the singles championship.
- Cantos Siemers is a No. 9-16 seed in the singles draw and is making her second straight singles appearance in the NCAA Championships.
- Cantos Siemers is the only Big Ten player to earn a spot in both singles and doubles this year, with the automatic bid into both draws.
- Boulais was in the NCAA singles tournament as a freshman in 2019 and earned a spot to the doubles championship with Kolie Allen last season.
- Cantos Siemers and Boulais are the third and fourth Buckeyes to make multiple NCAA singles appearances, joining Kristy Dascoli (1998-01) and Francesca Di Lorenzo (2016-17).
- Ratliff is the first Buckeye freshman to earn a spot in the doubles draw since Dascoli and Briana Harris in 2000.
- Cantos Siemers and Boulais join Dascoli, Di Lorenzo, Monica Rincon and Anna Sanford as Buckeyes to qualify in both singles and doubles, with Cantos Siemers (2022), Dascoli (1999-01) and Di Lorenzo (2017) all earning singles and doubles berths in the same season.
Buckeye This and That
- Ohio State was a perfect 11-0 in Big Ten play to capture the outright Big Ten regular season title.
- The 2022 crown is considered Ohio State’s third by the Big Ten, along with 2016, 2017 and 2021. The Buckeyes won the Big Ten regular season title in 2000 with a 9-1 regular season record; at that time, the tournament winner was considered the Big Ten champion. Since 2009, the regular season winner is declared the Big Ten champion.
- Ohio State fell in the Big Ten Tournament championship match last weekend. After downing Minnesota and Wisconsin 4-0 in their first two rounds, the Buckeyes lost to Michigan by the same score.
- Overall, Irina Cantos Siemers has a team-high 18 dual match wins, followed by Sydni Ratliff with 16 and Isabelle Boulais with 14.
- Cantos Siemers is first with 33 overall singles wins, ranking fifth in program history for single-season victories. Ratliff is second with 26, followed by Lucia Marzal with 23.
- In doubles dual matches, Cantos Siemers has a team-best 16 victories and Marzal and Boulais have each recorded 14.
- Ohio State has won the doubles point in 12 of its last 16 matches.
- In singles, Ohio State has compiled a 16-5 record on court two and is 16-6 on court one, with court four 14-5, court six 14-6 and court four 14-7.
The Schedule Ahead
- The winner of the second round match in Columbus will advance to the super regionals, with the match hosted on campus by the higher seed May 13 or 14.
- The region paired with Ohio State includes host and No. 7 Texas A&M, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Washington and Baylor.
- The final three rounds of the NCAA team tournament will be May 20-22 at the Kahn Outdoor Tennis Complex in Champaign, Ill.
- The NCAA singles and doubles championships will be held in Champaign, Ill., May 23-28 following the team tournament.
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