Women's Tennis rally falls short in tight 5-4 loss at Otterbein in battle of league unbeatens

WESTERVILLE — The Ohio Northern women's tennis team rallied from a 3-0 deficit after doubles, but saw its comeback fall just short in a tight 5-4 loss at Ohio Athletic Conference foe Otterbein on Thursday afternoon. 

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (13-5 overall, 2-1 OAC), Otterbein (11-4 Overall, 3-0 OAC)
• Venue: Sanders Courts - Westerville, Ohio.

Match Highlights

• Otterbein swept the doubles courts to grab a 3-0 lead, then held on by winning two of six singles courts for the victory.
• Junior Julianne Sheldon (Ashtabula/Saint John) won 6-4, 6-1 at No. 6 singles and fifth-year senior Regan Landis (Elkhart, Ind./Concord) won 6-2, 6-0 at No. 4 singles to get ONU within 3-2.
• OU won at No. 1 singles to increase its lead to 4-2.
• Sophomore Abby Cruser (Pendleton, Ind./Pendleton Heights) won 6-4, 6-2 at No. 3 singles and junior Katie O'Connell (Novi, Mich./Saint Catherine) won 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 at No. 5 singles to tie the match at 4-4.
• Sophomore Jamie Hurst (Granger, Ind./Penn) dropped her opening set at No. 2 singles 7-6, but rallied to win the second set 7-5 before eventually falling 6-4 in the thrilling final set.

Notables

• ONU is now 31-23 all-time against Otterbein and is 11-11 all-tine in Westerville.
• Cruser leads the team with a 17-7 singles mark and a 28-19 overall record.
• Sheldon has a team-best 14-7 doubles record.
• Second-year head coach Sean Swisher is now 29-10 at the helm of the ONU women's tennis team, a winning percentage of .744.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action at 1 pm Saturday afternoon at Capital.