Women's Tennis moves into championship match of OAC Tournament with 5-1 victory over John Carroll
By Tim Glon
MASON — Ohio Northern moved into the championship match of the Ohio Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Tournament with a 5-1 victory over John Carroll on a chilly Friday afternoon at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
The second-seeded Polar Bears improve to 16-4 overall and the third-seeded Blue Streaks end their season with a 6-12 mark.
Northern will face top-seeded Otterbein in the championship match on Saturday at 2 pm at the Lindner Center. ONU will be gunning for its seventh OAC Tournament title in school history and an automatic bid to the NCAA III Tournament.
Ohio Northern won two of the three doubles courts to take a 2-1 lead.
Freshman Jamie Hurst (Granger, Ind./Penn) and sophomore Julianne Sheldon (Ashtabula/Saint John) won 8-2 at No. 2 and senior Flo Sanchez (West Chester/Lakota West) and sophomore Katie O'Connell (Novi, Mich./Saint Catherine) won 8-6 at No. 3 doubles as ONU led 2-0.
JCU won 8-6 at No. 1 doubles to pull within 2-1 heading into singles play.
Ohio Northern was very strong at the bottom of the lineup as O'Connell won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 5 singles and Sheldon won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 6 singles to give ONU a 4-1 lead.
Freshman Jenna Bell (Latrobe, Pa.) clinched the match with a 6-3, 6-0 win at No. 3 singles.
Otterbein advanced to the finals with a 5-0 sweep of fourth-seeded Capital in the other semifinal match.
