Third-year Shelly Bereznyak swings to hit the ball against UCLA in the NCAA women’s tennis match on Feb. 4, 2024. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics
The Arizona State Sun Devils made their comeback against the Ohio State women’s tennis team over the weekend.
The No. 9 Buckeyes (6-4, 0-0 Big Ten) dropped their road match against No. 23 Arizona State (7-3, 0-0 Pacific-12) 4-1 on Sunday in Tempe, Arizona.
Before their matches against the Sun Devils Sunday, the Buckeyes were 8-1 all-time against Arizona State. The two teams met in Columbus earlier this season, ending in a 4-0 win for the Buckeyes, but the circumstances were different this time around.
At the start of Sunday’s match, Arizona State seized the doubles point after winning its doubles matches on both courts two and three.
With the Sun Devils up 1-0 going into singles, freshman Emilija Tverijonaite earned a straight-set win on court four over freshman Buckeye Teah Chavez, putting Arizona State up another point.
On court five, junior Shelly Bereznyak handed the Buckeyes their first and only point of the day after topping her opponent Sara Svetac in both the first and second sets. Bereznyak is now 6-2 overall this spring.
Competition was high between Arizona State’s Marianna Argyrokastriti and Ohio State’s junior Sydni Ratliff, but senior Argyrokastriti took both the first and second sets 6-4, moving the overall score to 3-1.
To close off the day’s matches, senior Sun Devil Rachel Hanford topped freshman Audrey Spencer on court six after taking a second-set tiebreaker 7-6, which gave Arizona State its 4-1 win.
With this loss, the Buckeyes moved from being at a season-high ranking of No. 7 to No. 9 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association team rankings.
With Big Ten Play around the corner, Ohio State will return to its home courts in Columbus for the next three matches where it will face non-conference foes Washington Sunday and No. 13 Pepperdine March 8.
