No. 11 Buckeyes Head to Madison for ITA National Indoors
2/10/2022 4:57:22 PM | Women's Tennis
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 11 Ohio State women’s tennis team is in Madison, Wis., for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, which starts Friday. The tournament includes 16 teams, with 15 who advanced from ITA Kickoff Weekend and the host Wisconsin Badgers. The main draw runs Friday through Monday and there will also be consolation action Saturday and Sunday, with each team guaranteed three matches.
A PlaySight live stream, as well as Tennis-Ticker live scoring, will be available for all matches. Cracked Racquets will provide broadcast coverage of the event via its ‘Red Zone’ format, with on-site commentary.
Tournament Central | Cracked Racquets YouTube channel
The top eight teams were seeded 1-8 with the remaining eight teams assigned an opponent through a draft by the top eight seeds.
The Buckeyes (2-2) open the tournament against No. 2 North Carolina at 10 a.m. ET Friday. The winners and losers of that match will face their counterparts from a match between No. 7 seed Virginia and Florida, with the quarterfinal and consolation matches at 10 a.m. ET Saturday. Semifinals will be held Sunday and the championship match is set for 1 p.m. ET Monday. A full schedule is available and will be updated on the tournament central site.
Buckeye This and That
- Four Buckeyes were in the ITA singles rankings released Wednesday. Irina Cantos Siemers stayed at No. 6, while Isabelle Boulais moved from back into the rankings to a career-best No. 21. Freshman Sydni Ratliff jumped from No. 123 to No. 77 and Lucia Marzal is No. 114.
- This is the first time in program history Ohio State has two players ranked in the Top 25 in singles at the same time.
- Boulais joins Cantos Siemers, Francesca Di Lorenzo, Shiori Fukuda and Kristy Dascoli as players to be among the Top 25 of the singles rankings.
- No new team rankings were released this week by the ITA. Ohio State was No. 11 for the second week in a row in the Feb. 2 poll.
- In the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25, Ohio State is ranked 10th this week.
- Two Buckeyes – Boulais and Ratliff – have earned Big Ten Athlete of the Week accolades so far this season.
- Boulais has wins over four Top 30 ranked players in 2022.
- Ohio State started the year with two 4-3 losses on the road to Top 10 programs, falling to Duke and North Carolina State. The Buckeyes evened their record with two wins on ITA Kickoff Weekend in Columbus, defeating Oklahoma State 4-1 and Tennessee 4-0.
- Boulais is a team-best 4-0 in dual matches, with Ratliff 3-1. Kolie Allen and Cantos Siemers both have 2-1 marks.
- The Buckeyes won the doubles point in both matches on Kickoff Weekend after dropping the point against Duke and NC State.
Buckeye History at ITA Indoors
- This year marks the Buckeyes’ seventh appearance at the ITA Team Indoor Championship and its sixth in the last seven years.
- All-time, the Buckeyes are 8-9 in matches at National Indoors.
- Last year in Stillwater, Okla., the No. 9-ranked Buckeyes fell to No. 1 and eventual national champion North Carolina in the first round, 4-0. The squad rebounded to top Georgia Tech 4-3 before falling by the same score to Northwestern.
- In 2020 the Buckeyes were the No. 8 seed at National Indoors in Chicago and took on Georgia Tech in the first round, falling 4-1. Ohio State then beat Michigan (4-3) and fell to Texas (4-3).
- In 2019, with the schedule shortened by inclement weather to two matches, the Buckeyes fell to No. 3 seed Duke in the first round, 4-3, and topped Syracuse, 5-2, in consolation play.
- In 2017, the squad was seeded No. 6 and was 2-1 in New Haven, Conn., defeating No. 14 ranked Auburn and No. 5 ranked Oklahoma State, before falling to No. 2 ranked and No. 2 seed UNC in the semifinals.
- In 2016, the Buckeyes were seeded eighth. They defeated Fresno State and No. 1 ranked and defending NCAA champion Vanderbilt, 4-3, before the team’s run at the championship ended on day three with a 4-3 loss to No. 6 ranked and No. 4 seed California.
- The 2001 team was the first to be invited and was 1-2 in Madison, Wis., falling to No. 7 Pepperdine (6-1) and No. 40 Oklahoma State (5-2) before a 5-2 win over No. 8-ranked UCLA.
Buckeyes vs. Tar Heels
- This is the second straight year, and the third time in six years Ohio State is facing North Carolina at National Indoors.
- Last season, the Buckeyes fell to the eventual champion Tar Heels in the first round, 4-0, and in 2017 UNC won 4-3 in New Haven, Conn.
- The Buckeyes are 0-4 all-time vs. the Tar Heels.
- The first two meetings between the squads were in 1978 (UNC 8-1) and 1976 (UNC 9-0) in Chapel Hill, N.C.
The Schedule Ahead
- Ohio State will face Kentucky on the road Feb. 18 before hosting No. 5 Pepperdine at noon Feb. 27 in the Ty Tucker Tennis Center. Admission is free to all regular season home matches.
- FULL SCHEDULE
