Katie Curry leads Women's Tennis in tight-knit, 5-4 loss at Otterbein

By Blake Moore

WESTERVILLE — Junior Katie Curry (Oxford/Talawanda) recorded two victories, but the Ohio Northern women's tennis program dropped a tightly-contested, Ohio Athletic Conference showdown 5-4 against Otterbein at the Otterbein Tennis Courts in Westerville on Wednesday afternoon.

With the loss, the Polar Bears fall to 18-5 overall and 6-1 in league play during the 2018-19 campaign. The Cardinals improve to 16-3 overall and boast a similar 6-1 OAC mark.

Curry and classmate Kaleigh Cummins (Springfield/Northeastern) emerged victorious in the No. 3 doubles slot with an 8-3 win over OU's Kristen Zink and Madison Mueller. The victory prevented Otterbein from sweeping all three doubles matches afer the Cardinals claimed 8-2 and 8-4 wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 slots, respectively.

From there, the two conference foes split the six contested singles matches, securing the 5-4 victory for the home side.

Curry wrapped up her two-win outing with a dominant 6-1, 6-1 triumph at No. 5 singles.

Meanwhile, senior Ashley Ochsenhirt (Birmingham, Ala./Briarwood Christian) and junior Mackenzie Wills (Ada) contributed the remaining victories during singles action. The former rolled past Otterbein's Sydney Bergman 6-4, 6-1 on the No. 1 court while the latter posted a 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Zink at No. 4 singles.

Ohio Northern will conclude the 2018-19 regular season this Saturday when the program hosts conference foe John Carroll. Match time is set for 1 p.m. at the University Tennis Courts in Ada.