No. 6 Buckeyes Host Kentucky and No. 24 Arizona State

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The No. 6 Ohio State women’s tennis team is set to face Kentucky at home at 5 p.m. Friday and No. 24 Arizona State at 10 a.m. Sunday. The matches will be inside the Varsity Tennis Center (880 West Henderson Road) with free admission. (Live Stats and Live Video)

Ohio State enters the match 4-3 after losing to No. 17 Vanderbilt last weekend. No. 38 Kentucky is 7-2 on the season and last played Feb. 2, notching a win against No. 32 Notre Dame. Arizona State is 8-3, coming off a 4-2 home victory against Rice Sunday.

The Series

Ohio State vs. Kentucky

• The Buckeyes and Wildcats have met 24 times, with Kentucky holding the advantage, 15-9, however, Ohio State is ahead 4-2 since 2010.
• The teams met in the regular season each year from 1998-2005.
• Ohio State and Kentucky faced off last year in Atlanta for ITA KickOff Weekend, with the Buckeyes posting a 4-1 win to advance to the ITA Team Indoor Championship.
• The last matchup in Columbus was in 2018, a 4-1 Buckeye victory.
• The series dates to 1975 when the Buckeyes posted a 9-0 win at home.

Ohio State vs. Arizona State

• Against the Sun Devils, the Buckeyes are 5-1 overall. This is the sixth consecutive year the teams are facing off.
• The teams met in Tempe last season, with the Buckeyes winning 4-3, as Kolie Allen won in a third set on court three to clinch the victory.
• The first match was an Arizona State home win in 1990.
• The Buckeyes are 2-0 at home vs. the Sun Devils, with a 6-1 win in 2016 and 4-3 victory in 2018.

In the Rankings

Ohio State is now sixth in the ITA rankings, the first time the team has been ranked inside the Top 10 since 2017. The squad started the year No. 25, moving to No. 12 then to No. 10. In the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25, the Buckeyes are 13th. Kentucky is ranked No. 38 by the ITA, with Arizona State No. 24 in the ITA rankings and No. 17 in the USTA poll.

New individual rankings were released this week, with three Buckeyes in the ITA Top 125. Shiori Fukuda is No. 11, freshman Irina Cantos Siemers moved up six spots to No. 54 and Danielle Wolf had the largest jump from No. 99 to No. 60.

In doubles, making their first debut in the rankings as a tandem, Kolie Allen and Cantos Siemers are No. 53, after defeating the then-No. 9 ranked Vanderbilt duo of Christina Rosca and Georgia Drummy last weekend.

Kentucky has two ranked singles players, with Carlota Molina Megias No. 97 and Lesedi Jacobs No. 118. Jacobs and partner Akvilė Paražinskaitė make up the No. 26-ranked doubles team.

Arizona State has three Sun Devils in the ITA Top 125 rankings: No. 38 Ilze Hattingh, No. 91 Savannah Slaysman and No. 120 Sammi Hampton.

Buckeye Leaders

Shiori Fukuda has a team-best 19-7 singles record this season, while she and Danielle Wolf both have four singles wins in dual match play to rank first on the team.

In doubles, Fukuda and Wolf are tied for first with 10 overall wins. In dual play, the tandem of Irina Cantos Siemers and Fukuda is first with three doubles victories.

Last Time Out

The Buckeyes are coming off a 5-2 loss against No. 17 Vanderbilt Sunday in Nashville. The Buckeyes won the doubles point, but the Commodores claimed five singles wins, with four in three sets, for the victory. Highlighting the match was the doubles team of Irina Cantos Siemers (who also won her singles match) and Kolie Allen upsetting the No. 9 ranked Vanderbilt duo.

Up Next

Ohio State will head back on the road to West Lafayette, Ind., to face No. 44 Purdue in the Buckeyes’ Big Ten opener. The match will take place at 5 p.m. Feb. 27 in the Schwartz Tennis Center  with free admission. Last year, the Buckeyes downed the Boilermakers in Columbus. After dropping the doubles point, Buckeyes Luna Dormet, Shiori Fukuda, Mary Beth Hurley and Kolie Allen responded with singles wins to clinch the team victory.

March 1, Ohio State will take on No. 2 Florida State at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla. Part of the College MatchDay series, the match will be televised by Tennis Channel. Ohio State and Florida State last met in 2017 in Columbus , a 4-0 Buckeye win during ITA Kickoff Weekend.