Around the Oval: Men’s and Women’s Tennis Head to ITA Indoor National Championships, Women’s Hockey Sweeps Minnesota State and Swim and Dive Win the Tim Welsh Classic

By Chase Brown on January 30, 2023 at 1:05 pm
Ohio State men’s tennis
Ohio State Dept. of Athletics
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Ohio State’s Olympic sports turned in a great week to wrap up the month of January.

In this edition of Around the Oval, Eleven Warriors' one-stop shop for coverage of Ohio State's Olympic sports programs, we offer a rundown of the past seven days for men’s and women’s tennis, women’s ice hockey, men’s and women’s swim and dive and some news and notes on several other teams.

Let's dive in.

Men’s Tennis

The No. 2 Ohio State men's tennis team continued its hot start to the indoor season by sweeping UCF and Oregon at the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Columbus and securing a spot at the ITA Indoor National Championships in Chicago from Feb. 17-20.

With the wins over the Knights and Ducks, Ohio State now holds an impressive 7-0 record this year and has surrendered only one point in those matches. The Buckeyes will face Texas A&M, Texas, Wake Forest, Virginia and Baylor before they travel to the Windy City for the indoor championships.

Ohio State is no stranger to the ITA Indoors, as head coach Ty Tucker and his program have now qualified for the championships for the 16th time in program history. The Buckeyes have also found tremendous success at the event, hoisting first-place trophies in 2014 and 2019 and most recently, finishing as runner-ups to TCU in 2022.

Women’s Tennis

Like the men’s squad, the No. 12 Ohio State women’s tennis team also won both of its matches over the weekend, defeating Old Dominion and Tennessee on its way to securing a spot in the ITA Indoor National Championships in Seattle from Feb. 10-13.

After the Buckeyes' 4-2 win over the No. 22 Volunteers, head coach Melissa Schaub said she was proud of the effort her players showed as they overcame adversity in their matches, finding a way to win and helping send their team to the next round.

“We had to dig deep today, and I’m so proud of our team and our effort out there,” Schaub said. “We have some veterans that stepped up big in the important moments. It wasn’t always pretty or our best, but we were tough. Our backs were against the wall tonight, and being at home and having our fans cheering us on really helped pull us through.”

The Buckeyes have now qualified for the tournament for the seventh time in the last eight years, including five seasons in a row dating back to 2018. With a 3-0 record, Ohio State is set to face Oklahoma State and Georgia before traveling west for ITA Indoors.

Women's Ice Hockey

The No. 1 women’s ice hockey team completed its regular-season sweep of Minnesota State with 6-2 and 4-2 wins on Friday and Saturday at the OSU Ice Rink. With the victories, the Buckeyes improved to 24-2-2 overall with a 19-2-1 mark in WCHA play.

Across both games against the Mavericks, Ohio State recorded 189 shots with 97 shots on goal, collected 56 faceoffs on the dot and had goaltenders Quinn Kuntz (15) and Amanda Thiele (22) combine to make 37 saves.

The Buckeyes had 15 players contribute points to the winning efforts: Madison Bizal, Jenn Gardiner, Paetyn Levis, Sophie Jaques, Brooke Bink, Jenna Buglioni, Hadley Hartmetz, Sloane Matthews, Makenna Webster, Riley Brengman, Emma Peschel, Sofie Lunde, Lauren Bernard, Emma Maltais and Thiele (via an assist).

Looking ahead, Ohio State has only six regular-season games left in 2022-23. The team will travel to Minneapolis this weekend to face No. 3 Minnesota. The Buckeyes will then host St. Thomas at the OSU Ice Rink on Feb. 10-11 before finishing their season in Madison, Wisconsin, for a heavyweight battle with the Badgers on Feb. 18-19.

Swim and Dive

The men’s and women’s swim and dive teams were victorious at Notre Dame’s Tim Welsh Classic in South Bend, Indiana, over the weekend, extending what has been a phenomenal start to the season for the Ohio State aquatics programs.

The No. 5-ranked men's team finished with 1,955.5 points – a 900-point win over the Fighting Irish – behind individual victories from Charlie Clark (1000 free), Ruslan Gaziev (100 free), Billy Regan (200 breast), Alex Quach (200 fly), Clayton Chaplin (3 meter dive) and a relay victory from Tomas Navikonis, James Ward, Mario McDonald and Gaziev in the 400 free.

Meanwhile, the No. 5-ranked women's team earned 1,803 points, beating second-place Notre Dame by over 900 points. The teams combined for eight pool records at the Rolfs Aquatic Center on Saturday and broke 20 records overall on the weekend.

Maya Geringer started off the winning ways for the women by claiming an individual victory in the 1000 free with a pool record mark of 9:41.74. The previous record was set in 1990 by Janet Evans, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and former world record holder in the 400, 800 and 1500 free. Amy Fulmer (200 back), Katherine Zenick (100 free) and a relay team of Fulmer, Zenick, Tristan Harrison and Teresa Ivan also secured victories for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State swim and dive will close out the regular season when the teams host the Ohio State Winter Invitational at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion from Feb. 10-12.

Other News and Notes

  • Katelyn Abein took first overall and won the air pistol, sport pistol and standard pistol to help Ohio State score a 6763 and beat Army at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in West Point, New York, this past weekend.
  • The Ohio State track and field team wrapped up competition at the Texas Tech Open & Multis and the Indiana Relays on Saturday. 2021 Ohio State Female Athlete of the Year and U.S. Olympian Adelaide Aquilla made her season debut in the shot put at the latter competition, winning the event with a best throw of 17.89m.
  • Five Buckeyes wrestlers earned championships Saturday at the 2023 Blue Raider Open as Brendan McCrone (125 pounds), Nic Bouzakis (133), Gavin Brown (157), Seth Shumate (184) and Luke Geog (197) all went undefeated on their way to titles in the open event.
  • The Ohio State men’s lacrosse team played Robert Morris Saturday at the new Ohio State Lacrosse Stadium in its final scrimmage in preparation for the 2023 season. The Buckeyes open their regular season campaign Feb. 4 against Air Force in Columbus.
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