Ohio State’s tennis teams looking to build on impressive starts
Championship season is months away, so Ohio State’s tennis coaches don’t want to make too much of early success.
What happens in the winter will be mostly forgotten if May doesn’t go well.
“You don’t want to be playing your best tennis necessarily right now,” OSU women’s coach Melissa Schaub said. “It’s a long season. But we’ll take how we’re playing right now and hopefully, we can keep building on it.”
That would apply to both OSU teams.
Ty Tucker’s men’s team, a perennial national contender, is ranked No. 2 with a 9-0 record after home sweeps last weekend of No. 23 Texas A&M and No. 6 Texas. The Buckeyes have swept every match except a 6-1 victory over Illinois that included a singles loss in a third-set tiebreak.
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The women’s team is 5-0 and ranked fifth. Four of its victories have come over ranked teams, including No. 4 Oklahoma on Jan. 22 and a 4-0 sweep of No. 5 Georgia on Saturday.
This is a big week for both OSU teams to maintain momentum.
The women head to Seattle for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. They play Auburn in the opening round Friday.
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The men go on the road for the first time this year with the possibility of playing outdoors against No. 9 Wake Forest on Thursday and No. 1 and defending NCAA champion Virginia on Saturday.
Unlike the stereotype of tennis crowds being genteel, college matches are usually raucous. That will pose a test for the OSU men, particularly freshmen Alexander Bernard and Jack Anthrop.
“The freshmen are going to see how it is to play with 500-600 people yelling against you,” Tucker said. “The older guys are going to have to make sure they stay focused.”
The men’s team is deep. Bernard and Anthrop were top-ranked juniors. Bernard was ninth in the world junior rankings. Anthrop was No. 1 in the USTA Boys 14 and 16 rankings and reached No. 17 in the world rankings.
But they are not even assured spots in the Buckeye lineup on a roster that includes accomplished veterans Cannon Kingsley, Justin Boulais, Robert Cash, JJ Tracy, James Trotter and Andrew Lutschaunig.
“Those two guys are fighting for time,” Tucker said of the freshmen. “It’s not easy, but that’s what you get with good programs.”
Tucker said the Buckeyes have mostly stayed healthy, though Kingsley was held out of singles against Texas after playing doubles.
The women’s team is led by senior Irina Cantos Siemers and sophomore Sydni Ratliff, a Columbus Academy grad. Ratliff is ranked 17th by the ITA and Siemers 23rd.
The Buckeyes have gotten strong play from Shelly Bereznyak, Kolie Allen and Lucia Marzal.
“It’s still so early, but I just feel like we have a sense of like calm about us right now,” Schaub said. “I think that we do have some confidence and we’ve got a lot of kids that have been doing it for a while.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams have something to prove. The men’s team is trying for the NCAA title that’s the only missing piece from Tucker’s resume. OSU lost to Kentucky in the semifinals last year. The Buckeye men also want to reassert their dominance in the Big Ten after losing in the conference tournament the past two years.
The women’s team had a disappointing ending last year, losing in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
“We didn’t feel like we were playing our best tennis in May,” Schaub said, “and that’s always the goal.”
That’s why neither she nor Tucker is making too much of the Buckeyes’ impressive start. But it’s better than the alternative.
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