ITA Tournament Central Site
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 12 Ohio State women’s tennis team is set to host ITA Kickoff Weekend matches in the Ty Tucker Tennis Center. Friday features the Buckeyes taking on Old Dominion at 10 a.m., with No. 22 Tennessee facing Wake Forest in the second match at 1 p.m. The championship match is scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday, with the consolation match at 7 p.m. Admission and parking are free to all matches. The site winner will advance to the 2023 ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
Tournament Central, including live scoring and video links, is available HERE.
In addition, Cracked Racquets will be providing play-by-play commentary on its YouTube stream, which will incorporate every match happening across 13 men’s and women’s sites. The live stream will focus on broadcasting the most exciting moments of each match from the sites they are covering.
The No. 2-ranked Ohio State men are also hosting ITA Kickoff Weekend, welcoming Tulsa, Oregon and Central Florida. The Buckeyes will host first round matches at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday, with the men’s consolation at 9 a.m. Sunday, followed by the championship at noon.
ITA Kickoff Weekend
- This is the 13th time Ohio State will compete in ITA Kickoff Weekend (previously known as the ITA National Indoor Qualifier).
- This is the fifth time the Buckeyes are hosting Kickoff Weekend matches; the team was a host site in 2017, ’18, ’21 and ‘22. Columbus is one of 15 women’s host sites around the country.
- Each season, the ITA Kickoff Weekend field is determined by the ITA Kickoff Weekend Draft which is held in the summer months after the dual-match season. The Top 15 ranked teams in the final ITA Rankings of the season will automatically serve as hosts. In the draft, teams and coaches have the opportunity to choose where they would like to play. The picks start with the No. 16 ranked team and conclude with the No. 60 ranked team (or until all 60 spots are filled).
- Ohio State has won two ITA Kickoff Weekend matches to reach the ITA Team Indoor Championship six times in the last seven years, including each of the last four seasons.
- The Buckeyes hosted the last two seasons. In 2022, Ohio State defeated Oklahoma State 4-1 and Tennessee 4-0 to advance to National Indoors. In 2021, Ohio State was 2-0 in Columbus to advance, topping Syracuse 4-0 and Virginia 4-2.
- In 2020, the Buckeyes won the Stillwater, Okla., site, defeating Wake Forest, 4-0, in the first round and then topping host Oklahoma State, 4-3, to clinch a spot at ITA National Indoors. In 2019, the Buckeyes traveled to Atlanta with Georgia Tech as the site host. Ohio State opened its dual match season with a 4-0 victory against the Yellow Jackets and then downed Kentucky, 4-1, to advance.
- In 2018, Ohio State was a Kickoff Weekend site. The Buckeyes defeated Kansas, 4-1, in the first round before a 4-2 loss to Wake Forest in the championship match. The Buckeyes advanced in 2017 with 4-0 wins over Florida State and Alabama in Columbus.
- The 2016 Buckeyes beat Pepperdine and TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, to earn a spot at National Indoors for the second time in program history.
- The Buckeyes’ other ITA Kickoff Weekend results include going 1-1 at Duke in 2009 and at Fresno State in 2010 and dropping two matches at Tennessee in 2011, at Florida State in 2012 and at Miami in 2014.
Buckeyes vs. Columbus ITA Kickoff Teams
- Friday will mark the first match between Ohio State and Old Dominion.
- The Monarchs are 2-0 this year, with a road win at Penn State and home win over Columbia.
- Ohio State is 2-2 all-time vs. Wake Forest, with the last two meetings on ITA Kickoff Weekend. In 2020, the teams faced off in Stillwater, Okla., in the site championship match, with Ohio State winning 4-0. In 2018 in Columbus, the Demon Deacons defeated the Buckeyes on their home court, 4-2, to win the site championship. Wake Forest won a neutral site match in Williamsburg in 2004 and the first match was a 6-3 Ohio State victory at Wake Forest in 1978.
- The Demon Deacons are 2-0 this year, as they started dual play with home wins over Charlotte and Richmond Sunday.
- Against Tennessee, the Buckeyes are 6-13 all-time, but Ohio State has won the last four dual match between the squads (2022, ‘16, ‘15, ’14). The teams met in Columbus for 2022 ITA Kickoff Weekend on day two, with a 4-0 Ohio State win to clinch a spot at National Indoors.
- This weekend opens dual play for the Lady Vols. Tennessee started its spring season at the Michigan Invitational Jan. 13-15.
Ranked Players and Teams in Columbus
(Singles and doubles rankings as of the end of fall; new rankings will be released Feb. 8)
Singles
No. 15 Sydni Ratliff (Ohio State)
No. 27 Casie Wooten (Wake Forest)
No. 30 Irina Cantos Siemers (Ohio State)
No. 37 Tatsiana Sasnouskaya (Old Dominion)
No. 55 Daria Kuczer (Tennessee)
No. 68 Elza Tomase (Tennessee)
No. 76 Rebeka Mertena (Tennessee)
No. 112 Shahar Biran (Old Dominion)
No. 116 Kolie Allen (Ohio State)
Doubles
No. 12 Anna Brylin/Broke Killingsworth (Wake Forest)
No. 31 Irina Cantos Siemers/Sydni Ratliff (Ohio State)
No. 52 Allison Isaacs/Alexandra Viktorovich (Old Dominion)
Ratliff Honored by B1G
- Sophomore Sydni Ratliff was named Big Ten Athlete of the Week Wednesday. It was Ohio State’s second-straight Big Ten Athlete of the Week honor and the fourth of Ratliff’s career.
- In her first match at No. 1 singles in the Scarlet and Gray, No. 15-ranked Ratliff posted a 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over Oklahoma’s Layne Sleeth, who has been ranked as high as sixth nationally, securing the Buckeyes’ fourth point en route to a 5-2 win over the then-No. 4-ranked Sooners.
- Ratiff, the 2022 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, leads the Buckeyes with 13 singles wins overall this season and is first with eight doubles victories.
Buckeye This and That
- Ohio State downed then-No. 4 Oklahoma, 5-2, Sunday in Columbus in its season opener. The Buckeyes dropped the doubles point to the Sooners, the NCAA runner-up last season, before winning five of six singles matches to capture the team win. Shelly Bereznyak, Lucia Marzal, Irina Cantos Siemers, Sydni Ratliff and Kolie Allen all notched singles victories for the Scarlet and Gray, with four of the five winning in straight sets.
- Ohio State moved from No. 17 in the first two ITA polls of the year to No. 12 after its win over Oklahoma.
- Three Buckeyes are in the ITA singles rankings – No. 15 Sydni Ratliff, No. 30 Irina Cantos Siemers and No. 116 Kolie Allen. Cantos and Ratliff are the No. 31-ranked doubles tandem.
- Ratliff is the fourth Buckeye to be ranked in the Top 15, joining Cantos Siemers, who has been as high as No. 4, Francesca Di Lorenzo, who spent time as the top-ranked player in the NCAA, and Shiori Fukuda, who was as high as eighth.
- Akanksha Bhan paired with Cantos Siemers in doubles vs. OU, marking her Ohio State dual match debut after four years at Columbia.
Up Next
- Ohio State will host two matches next week, taking on No. 14 Oklahoma State at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2 and No. 6 Georgia at noon Feb. 4. Admission and parking are free for the matches.
