Ohio State Women Marking Their Own Territory

By Joey Dillon

March 1st may have been just a normal day for the ITA rankings to be released, but for the Ohio State women’s team, it meant another step in the journey to becoming a powerhouse. The Buckeye ladies rose to No.1 in the country for the first time in program history, as well as having the No.1 singles player and No.4 doubles team in the country, also program-bests. I spoke with head coach Melissa Schaub, as well as current and former members of the Buckeye program, who before last season had never moved past No.17.

Catherine Isip's Lucky Gamble Pays Off

Catherine Isip graduated from Saint Mary's College in 2013 with a degree in Sports Management

by Joey Dillon

Catherine Isip had a junior tennis career most would dream of. She was named a Top 10-blue chip recruit out of Southern California and was on the radar for a number of top schools. A twist of fate

Women: #6 Ohio State Outlasts #5 Vanderbilt

I was fortunate enough to return to the Varsity Tennis Center to watch The Ohio State Buckeyes take on the Vanderbilt Commodores in an all-Top 6 matchup.

The Buckeyes, coming off of their stellar ITA Indoor debut, hosted a rematch against reigning NCAA champions Vanderbilt. OSU, then-#16, upset the top-ranked Commodores 4-3 in the NTI quarterfinals with Miho Kowase defeating Courtney Colton 6-4 in the third set. The Buckeyes moved to another program-high (No.6) ranking this week, while VU dropped to No.5. Another tight encounter was expected and the match was a 3.5 hour battle between two teams that could vie for the NCAA title.

Cal Claims 2016 ITA Women's National Team Indoor Title

Defending champion North Carolina threw everything it had at Cal but the Golden Bears captured its first-ever team National title at the 2016 ITA Women's National Team Indoor Championships. The tournament came down to No.5 singles with Olivia Hauger outlasting Marika Akkerman, 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.

Cal holding the ITA NTI trophy, its first in program history © ITA

ITA Women's NTI Championship Set: California vs. North Carolina

The 2016 ITA Women's National Team Indoor Championship is set with #6 California taking on the defending champions, #5 North Carolina. Both teams escaped close wins and tomorrow's final should be a real enticing encounter. Doubles will be a big point for either team and Cal will be focused on its first-strike tennis to gather momentum. North Carolina has been in this situation before and I think they''ll use their experience to wear down and overwhelm the Bears. Any player on both teams can take the match and I'm not the most confident in my predictions. The matchup is essentially a coin flip.

Jonathan Kelley from On The Rise be recapping with his thoughts and quotes at ZooTennis later tonight and will be covering tomorrow's final as well.

Women's NTI Semifinals Set: Ohio State Stuns Vanderbilt

Saturday's action is complete at the 2016 ITA Women's National Team Indoors and the semifinals are set with #16 Ohio State playing #6 Cal and #5 North Carolina facing off against #2 Georgia. Ohio State had the stunner of the year taking out the reigning NCAA champions Vanderbilt, while the rest of the remaining teams lived up to their seeding.

Again, I'd like to thank Jonathan Kelley from On The Rise for his tweets and coverage at the NTI. You will be able to check out his thoughts and quotes at ZooTennis later tonight.

Women's NTI Day 1: Top 4 Seeds Blank Out Opponents

I'll gladly take a solid 6/8 correct on Day 1 with one match going 4-3 and the other a match I thought would be as tight as it could get.

I think the story of the day was how competitive doubles was for nearly every match. Three of the eight doubles points were decided by a tiebreaker (Vanderbilt/Duke, Ohio State/Fresno State and Virginia/Texas A&M). With the 6-game, no-ad scoring format, does doubles have the same psychological effect on teams after a close point? Jonathan Kelley from On The Rise is covering the event for ZooTennis and you can read his recap with quotes here.

Someone in the comments pointed out how Florida, Stanford, USC and Baylor elected to skip the NTI to schedule their own tough matches and prepare differently for the off-season. Should teams who skip be penalized come NCAA seeding time and does it put an asterisk next to the champion's name? Feel free to discuss in the comments.

ITA Women's National Team Indoor Preview

The second-largest team tournament in collegiate tennis behind the NCAAs is the ITA National Team Indoor event. 15 schools advanced in Kick-Off Regionals to join host Wisconsin in Madison in the prestigious event that lasts from Friday through Monday. Last year, North Carolina dropped only 2 points in its 4 matches to clinch its 2nd title in 3 years. Lots of questions come into the tournament - can UNC match its title run after two of its three stars left? Can Vanderbilt show the world that its NCAA title isn't a fluke? Will UGA turn its consistency into a national title? Will a new team emerge from Madison as a top-tier team?

Women: Wild Weekend Led By Upsets

Five Top 15 teams from the latest ITA Rankings - USC, Virginia, Stanford, Texas A&M and Michigan, fell this weekend in losses. USC was the highest ranked team to fall this weekend, facing SoCal rival Pepperdine. A huge factor in the Virginia match was the suspension of five players due to a snowball fight during a winter storm. Virginia and Stanford fell in tight 4-3 losses, while Ohio State upset Michigan for the first time since 2003 and Texas A&M lost to UNC in a Top 10 battle before the ITA Indoors kicks off this weekend.

ITA Women: UCLA Stunned, Ohio State Claims 1st NTI Berth

14 of the 15 ITA Kickoff Regionals saw play today, with Cal struggling with rain for the second consecutive day. Five Regionals were completed with 3 No.1 seeds, a No.2 seed and a surprise No.3 seed claiming final victories to join Wisconsin at the ITA National Team Indoor, being held February 5-8 in Madison, WI.

#5 North Carolina Regional: Tar Heels Dominate Singles

The UNC Tar Heels, the reigning NTI champions, looked in good form today, blanking #48 Tulsa 4-0 to advance to Madison. UNC dropped only 10 games in their 5 completed first sets, with the No.4 match in a tiebreaker when play was called. Maria Akkerman was the star of the weekend, losing just three games in her two matches combined. Hayley Carter continued to impress this weekend and Whitney Kay did a complete 180 from yesterday to completely rout her ranked opponent. In the 3rd/4th playoff, #53 Marshall rallied from 1-3 down to take out #68 Yale, with the Herd claiming the win at No.1.

ITA Women: Top Seeds Cruise In Friday's ITA Kickoff

Six of the ITA Kickoff Regionals began today and all No.1 seeds cruised without much difficulty. Fresno State was the lone No.3 seed to earn a scalp into tomorrow's final. UGA and UNC were the top 2 teams to play and routed Wyoming and Yale, respectively. The closest match of the weekend, ranking-wise, was No.18 Ohio State's 4-3 thriller over No.19 Pepperdine. Tomorrow should bring some tighter matches and a few upsets. For my predictions for the entire weekend, check out my preview here.

Women's Kick-Off Weekend Regional Previews

Hi everyone! I’m super excited to contribute to College Tennis Today and hope to add on to the awesome work Bobby’s already done to give more light to college tennis. A lot of my knowledge and passion stems from the women’s side of the game and the reason I fell in love with the college game was being present for the #1 Georgia Tech vs #4 UGA battle in 2008. I was hooked ever since and follow all things college tennis – current players and in the pros. I hope to help Bobby with giving content for the women’s side of the game while he dominates what’s going on with the men. I’ll start off with my predictions for this weekend’s ITA Kick-Off Weekend.