Season Preview: Women's Tennis looks to have continued success in 2016-17
By Caleb Scott
ADA — The Ohio Northern women's tennis team will look to continue its winning ways during the 2016-17 season under 16th-season head coach Scott Wills.
The Polar Bears have been Ohio Athletic Conference Regular Season champions, Tournament champions or runners-up in 14 of the last 15 years, which has included team titles in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2015.
In the classroom, Northern has been named as an Academic All-American Team by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association for 13 of the last 15 years.
Wills welcomes back four letterwinners from last season's team that finished 19-3 overall and 7-1 in the OAC.
The four returning letterwinners, seniors Brittany Toney and Christina Corbean along with juniors Lynn Kelly and Kirsten Adamson will look to lead Northern in 2016-17. Toney and Kelly will be serving as co-captains for this year's squad.
Kelly posted a 28-6 overall record last season, including a perfect 5-0 record in OAC play in doubles action and was a first team All-OAC selection.
Adamson returns after posting a perfect 10-0 season in OAC action in 2015-16.
Toney led the team last season with a 20-5 doubles record.
Corbean returns after taking the 2015-16 season off and will look to help Northern compete for an OAC championship.
Juniors Lynn Kelly and Kirsten Adamson will also return in 2016-17.
"We'll be relying heavily on the leadership and experience of Lynn, Brittany, Kirsten, and Christina, to lead by example this year. Lynn is one of the toughest competitors in our region and Brittany brings a track record of solid experience and is one of our best doubles players," said head coach Scott Wills. "Having Christina back as a fifth year senior will provide us a boost along with Kirsten who stepped in last year during some key matches to offer clutch performances."
Lone sophomore Ashley Ochsenhirt will also look to be a contributor for Northern this season after transferring to Ohio Northern this year.
"Ashley will be a key contributor this year. She brings a great all court game with a solid knowledge base that will serve as a real asset to our team," said Wills.
Wills will also welcome a strong freshman class to the team this season.
Freshmen Kaleigh Cummins, Ola Latala, Katherine Curry, Jordan Dodson, McKenna Griffith, JaceyHigbie, and Mackenzie Wills will add a great deal of depth and will look to contribute early for Northern.
"We're excited about this year's recruiting class. They will have the opportunity and challenge to step into key roles this year," said Wills.
The Polar Bears will open the 2016-17 fall portion of the schedule with an east coast trip which will feature contests at Kean (N.J) and Rutgers-Newark (N.J.) on Sept. 2, prior to taking on defending Skyline Conference Champion and Farmingdale State (N.Y) on Sept. 4.
Northern will return home and travel to Oberlin for the Oberlin Invitational Sept. 9-11 which is tabbed as the top fall invitational in the Midwest with a strong contingent of regionally and nationally ranked teams.
ONU will also compete in a tri-match at Defiance College on Sept. 13, and will tackle NAIA foe St. Francis.
Northern will also visit Trine (Ind.) on Sept. 17 in a dual men's and women's match before competing in the ITA Regional Championships Sept. 30-Oct. 2.
"Our fall schedule will be challenging but hopefully provide us an opportunity to gauge where we're at and provide our new team members much needed experience in prep for the spring season," said Wills.