Women's Tennis clinches bye in OAC Tournament with Senior Day victories over Muskingum, Marietta

By Tim Glon

MASON — The Ohio Northern women's tennis team clinched a bye in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament with shutout victories over Muskingum and Marietta on Saturday as part of the OAC Tennis Fest at the Lindner Tennis Center.

ONU topped Muskingum 6-0 and Marietta 9-0.

The Polar Bears improve to 17-4 overall and are 7-0 in OAC action. Muskingum falls to 0-12, 0-7 and Marietta drops to 4-14, 0-5.

ONU also celebrated Senior Day with a ceremony to honor the squad's lone senior, Lynn Kelly (Mason).

Kelly won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2 singles and combined with sophomore Mackenzie Wills to win 8-0 at No. 2 doubles against the Pioneers.

In her four seasons as a Polar Bear, Kelly is now 117-34 in her career.

Wills and sophomores Katie Curry (Oxford/Talawanda) and Jordan Dodson (Worthington) each went 2-0 in singles and Wills and Curry each posted 4-0 records on the day.

Muskingum only had four healthy players, the teams did not compete at No. 3 doubles and Nos. 5-6 singles. ONU swept all six courts without losing a game to the Muskies.

Against Marietta, junior Ashley Ochsenhirt (Birmingham, Ala./Briarwood Christian) won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 singles.

Northern only dropped six games as a team in the sweep of the Pioneers.

ONU has clinched a top-2 finish in the OAC regular season standings and a quarterfinal bye that comes with it in the new 6-team tournament format adopted by the league this season.

Northern will battle the other league unbeaten team, John Carroll, for the regular season title and the top seed in the tournament next week on a date and time yet to be determined.

The Polar Bears will wrap up the OAC Tennis Fest on Sunday morning with a non-conference match against Wittenberg.