Around the Oval: Wrestling Crowned B1G Champs, Volleyball Breaks MIVA Record, Tennis Wins Against a Top-Five Opponent

By TJ Neer on March 6, 2017 at 1:05 pm
Ohio State wrestling: Big Ten champions.
Ohio State Athletics.
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For the second time in four years, the Ohio State wrestling team has been named Big Ten Champions, aided by four individual titles for Buckeye wrestlers. That's not the only good thing in Ohio State athletics this week, though...

Men's Volleyball

As has become the norm around here, Ohio State men's volleyball was dominant this week. The team took down St. Francis to extend their winning streak to 41 straight, the longest in MIVA Conference history. The top-ranked Buckeyes are now 18-0 on the season.

Junior Nicolas Szerszen tallied 15 kills and seven digs on a 17-point night, while senior Miles Johnson added 12 kills of his own along with four digs during a 16.5-point performance.

Wrestling

Success for the Buckeyes has not been restricted to the volleyball court this season, as many other teams have been very impressive through the winter months. One of the most impressive teams has been the wrestling squad, who captured their second Big Ten title in four years over the weekend, and their first outright title since 1951.

Entering the tournament as the second-ranked team in the Big Ten behind Penn State, the Buckeyes had three wrestlers as No. 1 pre-seeds, and four other wrestlers within the top five at their weight class.

The team did not disappoint, as a total of six Buckeyes advanced to the finals in their weight classes, and four were crowned champions. Those four were junior Nathan Tomasello (133 pounds, three-time Big Ten champ), junior Kyle Snyder (heavyweight, two-time champ), Bo Jordan (174 pounds, his first Big Ten championship, had finished as a runner-up twice previously) and redshirt freshman Kollin Moore (197 pounds).

184-pounder Myles Martin (sophomore) and 149-pounder Micah Jordan (redshirt sophomore) lost their matchup in the finals, but the team was still able to score a total of 139.5 points to edge out the 130 points scored by Penn State.

Tennis

The impressive week does not end after those two teams, though, as the top-ranked men's tennis squad dominated No. 29 Norte Dame 7-0 on Friday  and No. 4 Oklahoma 4-0 Sunday. The sweep of Oklahoma was the team's second this season, as they also beat the Sooners in straight sets at the ITA National Indoors earlier in the season.

Junior Mikael Torpegaard once again made quick work of his opponents, as he won both of his singles matches over the weekend in straight sets.

For the No. 2 women's tennis team, the weekend also held two wins over ranked opponents, as the Buckeyes took down No. 9 Pepperdine 6-1 Saturday and No. 35 Arizona State 4-0 Sunday. The team is now 12-1 on the season, with six of those wins coming against teams ranked in the top 10.

No. 1 singles player Francesca Di Lorenzo, a sophomore, swept both of her opponents over the weekend, including No. 6 Luisa Stefani (Pepperdine). As part of the 26th-ranked doubles duo, Di Lorenzo, along with senior Miho Kowase, were able to take down the No. 2 combo of Christine Maddox and Mayar Sherif (Pepperdine).

Lacrosse

No. 20 men's lacrosse improved to 6-0 on the season after taking down Marquette and Bellarmine over the weekend.

Freshman Tre Leclaire paced the Buckeyes' scoring over the weekend with five goals between the two games, while senior Eric Fannell was close behind him with two goals in each game.

Junior goalie Matthew Smidt allowed just 17 goals in the two games, and racked up 15 saves.

Women's lacrosse put together an impressive 17-5 victory over Duquesne over the weekend, which included four goals on four shots by sophomore Baley Parrott and the Buckeyes holding the Dukes scoreless for the second half.

Freshman Liza Hernandez may have cooled down a bit from what we've seen in the past few weeks, but she still strung together two goals and two assists on eight shots in the Friday matchup.

Freshman goalie Jillian Rizzo made seven saves while only allowing five goals in 51 minutes.

Hockey

While we saw the women's season come to an end last week, Ohio State hockey fans can rejoice as the men's team closed its home season with a senior night win over the weekend against Michigan State.

The Buckeyes won the latter of their two-game set with the Spartans, scoring four goals Friday and five in their win Saturday. Senior Nick Schilkey scored two goals and added two assists over the weekend, and he'll enter the final series of the regular season against Wisconsin as the NCAA leader in goals per game (.87).

Schilkey crossed the 40-point mark for the second consecutive season while sophomore Mason Jobst, with two goals and three assists over the weekend, upped his point total to 47 on the season. He ranks 10th in the NCAA in points per game (1.38).

Gymnastics

The No. 4 Buckeyes hosted the Ukraine national team and No. 5 Minnesota Golden Gophers at the Arnold Challenge over the weekend at the Celeste Center in Columbus, and emerged victorious. The team scored 415.250 to pace the field, while Minnesota followed closely behind with 413.300 and the Ukraine national team scored 398.400.

The Buckeyes captured five event titles during the competition: redshirt junior Sean Melton with a 14.800 on the floor routine, redshirt junior Ryan Lemezis with a 14.550 on rings, junior Seth Delbridge on vault, redshirt junior Jake Dastrup parallel bars and redshirt senior Jake Martin on high bar.

This competition was an excellent barometer for the Buckeyes, and will be sure to give them some confidence as they will take on the top-ranked Oklahoma Sooners in Norman on March 11.

No. 25 women's gymnastics put up a hard fight against No. 7 Denver, but ultimately dropped the meet 197.150-195.475. Junior Alexis Mattern led the Buckeyes in scoring, and finished third in the all-around competition with 37.950 points on the day.

Baseball

Softball was off for the weekend, but the baseball team provided a bright spot with a series win over Campbell over the weekend. The Buckeyes scored 16 runs in the three-game set, including seven runs in each of their wins on March 4 and 5.

Perhaps the most impressive performance of the weekend was senior Zachary Ratcliff's on Saturday. Ratcliff mashed two home runs while going 2-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs in the Buckeyes 7-1 victory over the Camels. Senior Jalen Washington also hit a home run in that game.

Other Events

Synchronized Swimming took home first place in every event at the U.S. Collegiate North Regional meet.

Upcoming

March 7

  • Women's Lacrosse @ Notre Dame

March 8

  • Women's Tennis vs. Virginia

March 10

  • Softball vs. Georgia (Orlando, Fla.)
  • Softball @ UCF
  • Men's Volleyball vs. UC San Diego
  • Baseball @ Florida Gulf Coast
  • Men's Ice Hockey @ Wisconsin
  • Track & Field - NCAA Championships (College Station, Texas)
  • Rifle - NCAA Championships

March 11

  • Softball vs. Delaware State (Orlando, Fla.)
  • Women's Lacrosse @ Holy Cross
  • Men's Lacrosse vs. Cleveland State
  • Men's Volleyball vs. UC Irvine
  • Men's Gymnastics @ Oklahoma
  • Men's Ice Hockey @ Wisconsin
  • Women's Gymnastics - Big Ten Five-Team Meet (Champaign, Ill.)
  • Rifle - NCAA Championships
  • Pistol - National Collegiate Pistol Championships (Fort Benning, Ga.)
  • Track & Field - NCAA Championships (College Station, Texas)

March 12

  • Softball vs. Mercer (Orlanda, Fla.)
  • Baseball @ Florida Gulf Coast
  • Pistol - National Collegiate Pistol Championships (Fort Benning, Ga.)
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