Ohio State excellence is not exclusive to the football field or the basketball court. Around the Oval is our way of keeping you informed of the amazing things happening with the other 34 varsity sports on campus.
Lacrosse teams punch their tickets
Heading into the weekend, both the men's and women's lacrosse teams sat in nearly identical positions. Both teams were coming off a loss in the regular season finale, both teams appeared to be on the outside of the NCAA Tournament looking in, and both teams desperately needed to either bolster their at-large resume' with a quality win, or to win the conference tournament and receive an automatic bid. A glance at the conference tournament bracket showed one more striking similarity: for both teams, the powerhouse Maryland Terrapins stood between the Buckeyes and the NCAA Championship.
Maryland's women's lacrosse team is by far the most dominant program in the nation. They headed into the weekend as the top-ranked team in the country and defending national champions, riding a 27-game win streak that stretched into last season. The closest they had come to losing was a two goal win against second-ranked North Carolina back in February, and they beat the Buckeyes 13-8 in their regular season meeting in a game that was never very close. All signs pointed to Maryland cake-walking past Ohio State once more. The Buckeyes, however, had other plans. After a falling behind quickly 4-0, the Buckeyes rallied to play almost flawlessly the rest of the game. On the defensive side, Ohio State senior goalie Tori DeScenza had a monster game making 11 saves, biding time for the offense to get going — and eventually, it did. Junior Cian Dabrowski led the offense with a career high four goals, and was followed by seniors Jennifer Porretto and Katie Chase who each netted hat-tricks. The effort was enough to give the Buckeyes the 11-10 win, and their first win against the top-ranked team in program history. The team fell to Penn State in the Big Ten Championship game Sunday, but the win against Maryland was enough to solidify an at large bid to the NCAA tournament, where they will face Notre Dame next weekend.
Three weeks ago, the Ohio State men's team looked like a lock for the NCAA Tournament. They were a win away from becoming the first ever Big Ten Regular Season Champion, and even appeared to be on pace to earn a top seed in the NCAA Tournament. However, a fourth quarter collapse at home against Maryland and a lopsided loss to a bad Rutgers team left the Buckeyes on the outside looking in heading into the weekend. To have a hope of being selected as an at-large team, the Buckeyes needed to beat sixth-ranked Maryland to bolster their resume', and they did just that. The 9-6 come from behind win gave the Buckeyes a fourth win against NCAA Tournament teams this season, which was good enough to earn the team an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, even despite a lopsided loss to Johns Hopkins in the conference championship game. The Buckeyes will play fourth-ranked and back to back champion Duke in the fourth round Saturday at 7:30.
Golf and tennis teams in the ncaa tourney
After both finishing as runners up in the B1G Tournament, both the men and women's tennis teams received at large bids to the NCAA Tournament. The women's team will face off against unranked Oklahoma in a very winnable first round match in Nashville Friday afternoon. After that however, the Buckeyes will likely face fourth-ranked Vanderbilt, who is ranked higher than any team Ohio State has faced this year much less beaten.
The men's team got a much more favorable draw. Of the six teams to beat Ohio State throughout the season, only one of them was placed in the same bracket as the Buckeyes, and it's sixth-ranked Texas A&M, who they would likely meet in the sweet-sixteen. The Buckeyes are on the opposite side of the bracket of Illinois, who dominated them 3 times this season, and top-ranked Oklahoma.
The men's and women's golf teams also received bids to the NCAA Tournament. The women received an automatic bid after winning the Big Ten Tournament last weekend, and the men received one of the at-large bids. The women will be a 10-seed in their regional in Raleigh N.C. and the men will be a nine-seed in their regional in New Haven Connect.
Buckeye Success This Season
This means that the Ohio State athletic program currently has six different teams in NCAA tournament action, and have had 22 different teams qualify for their respective National Tournaments on the season. By my count, this is more than any other school by far. To put it into perspective, by my count only five schools even support more than 22 varsity teams. The Buckeyes aren't quite done either. Barring an epic collapse, the rowing and baseball teams are virtual locks for post-season play, and both men's and women's track teams could qualify as well. I'll surely talk about this more in depth as all the seasons wrap up in the coming months, but across the board, Ohio State's athletic program has been exceptionally, and possibly historically good this year.
illinois breaks out the brooms
The Buckeyes had a pivotal series this weekend at home against the consensus top-10 ranked Illinois, and it did not go as they had hoped. The Buckeyes were swept in three games, losing 8-1, 6-5, and 6-2.
In all three games, the Illini had a sixth inning offensive explosion. The common denominator in all three cases was that the starting pitcher was left in the game with nobody warming up in the bullpen. When it became clear that the starter was running out of gas, there was no relief able to be brought in immediately and the Illini were able to make them pay.
Why was nobody warming up in the bullpen? I don't really have an answer for that, but it certainly isn't because the bullpen has been ineffective. Before Illinois came to town, the Buckeyes were riding a seven game winning streak that included two wins against 23-ranked Nebraska. During that win streak, the bullpen gave up just ONE run in 7 games. The bullpen has been so good that you could almost make the argument that you couldn't bring a reliever in soon enough, at least if the starting pitching hadn't been so good as well.
Having confidence in your starter in mid-to-late innings is one thing, but not even having a reliever warm up in those situations against a top-10 team seems like trying to win a heavy-weight fight with one hand tied behind your back. Hopefully this can be a learning experience as the Buckeyes head to post-season play in a few weeks.
Other Scores and News
- Women's Tennis's Melissa Schaub named B1G Coach of the Year
- Women's Tennis's Gabriella De Santis and Anna Sanford named All-Big Ten
- Men's and Women's track team had a good showing at Jesse Owen's Classic
- Men's Volleyball lost to Loyola 3-1 in the conference semi-finals, ending their season
- Softball completed the senior weekend sweep of Indiana 3-0
What's Happening This Week
- Men's Lacrosse faces back to back defending champion Duke in the NCAA Tournament Saturday
- Women's Lacrosse plays Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament this weekend
- Men's Tennis hosts Buffalo in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Saturday
- Women's Tennis faces Oklahoma in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday in Nashville
- Women's Golf competes in the NCAA regional Thursday through Saturday
- Rowing competes for the B1G Championship this weekend
- Softball faces Indiana in the first round of the B1G Tournament Thursday
- Baseball travels to Miami University Tuesday, and Cincinnati Wednesday before hosting their last home series of the season against Maryland this weekend
2014-15 'Ship Count
- Football
- Wrestling
- Pistol
- Synchronized Swimming
