Joey D’s Weekly Women’s Rewind – Ohio State Shines, Auburn Claims Blue Gray Title; Hsu Reigns Supreme in Tunisia

Teams in the top 20 were busy and Auburn, the No. 8 team in the country, was the big winner of the week with its title at the Blue Gray Classic. The Tigers had the upset of the week downing No. 5 Texas Tech 4-2 in the championship match. No. 18 Cal also had a big win over No. 9 UCLA while No. 2 Ohio State had a huge weekend shutting out Miami (FL) and No. 10 Baylor. Matches involving the Top 20 are below.

February 25th
No. 2 Ohio State def. Miami 4-0
No. 3 North Carolina def. No. 21 South Carolina 4-1
No. 5 Texas Tech def. Alabama 4-0
No. 7 Vanderbilt def. St. Mary’s (CA) 6-1
No. 8 Auburn def. Denver 4-0
No. 8 Auburn def. No. 5 Texas Tech 4-2
No. 11 Georgia Tech def. No. 13 Georgia 4-3
No. 24 Tennessee def. No. 14 Kansas 4-0
No. 17 Duke def. No. 15 TCU 4-3
No. 17 Ole Miss def. Memphis 4-0
No. 18 Cal def. No. 26 Southern California 6-1

February 26th
No. 2 Ohio State def. No. 10 Baylor 4-0
No. 25 Stanford def. No. 7 Vanderbilt 4-3
No. 12 Pepperdine def. No. 9 UCLA 5-2
No. 11 Georgia Tech def. No. 36 Florida State 5-2

February 28th
No. 3 North Carolina def. No. 16 North Carolina State 7-0
No. 22 Texas A&M def. No. 15 TCU 4-3

You can check out upcoming schedules here on College Tennis Today. 

Over on the pro side, there was plenty of action. Connie Hsu, who turned professional after a season at Penn, highlighted the week with a singles title in Tunisia. The $15,000 ITF title was the 5th of her career in singles and adds to the doubles title she won last week. There was a group of collegiate advancing to the quarterfinals all over the globe. Abigail Tere-Apisah and Maria Sanchez reached the final eight at the $25,000 level while Shelby Talcott and Lauren Embree followed at the $15,000 level.

$2,365,250 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships – Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Q: Aleksandrina Naydenova (UGA/Arizona ‘10*)
Doubles: Abigail Spears (UCLA ‘00*, QF), Raquel Atawo (Cal ’04, R1)

$226,750 Hungarian Ladies Open – Budapest, Hungary
2R: Irina Falconi (Georgia Tech ’10*)

$25,000 ITF Perth, Australia
QF: Abigail Tere-Apisah (Georgia State ’14)
2R: Kristie Ahn (Stanford ’14)
Q: Stefanie Tan (TCU ’15), Jessy Rompies (Clemson ’15), Beatrice Gumulya (Clemson ’15), Alexandra Walters (Charleston Southern ’14) , Catherine Harrison (UCLA ’16)
Doubles: Gumulya/Rompies (QF), Ahn/Harrison (1R), Tan/Tere-Apisah (Q)

$25,000 ITF Moscow, Russia
2R: Anna Morgina (South Carolina ’12)
Doubles: Morgina (QF)

$25,000 ITF Rancho Santa Fe, California
QF: Maria Sanchez (Southern Cal ’11)
2R: Danielle Collina (Virginia ’16), Chanelle Van Nguyen (UCLA ’15)
1R: Danielle Lao (Southern Cal ’13), Luisa Stefani (Pepperdine ’19), Jacqueline Cako (Arizona State ’13*), Sabrina Santamaria (Southern Cal ’15)
Q: Lorraine Guillermo (Pepperdine ’15), Kaitlyn Christian (Southern Cal ’14), Keri Wong (Clemson ’12), Melissa Kopinski (Illinois ’15), Brianna Morgan (Florida ’16), Desirae Krawczyk (Arizona State ’16), Jessica Wacnik (Boston College ’15), Megan McCray (Oklahoma State ’14*), Morgan McCray (Oklahoma State ’14*), Madeline Kobelt (Syracuse ’14), Stephanie Luk (Sonoma State ’11), Andrea Duva (UC Irvine ’16), Nazari Urbina (Texas A&M ’13), Amy Zhu (Michigan ’14*), Sanaz Marand (UNC ’10), Kristina Smith (UC Irvine ’13)
Doubles: Stefani (SF), Kobelt (QF), Marand (QF), Wacnik (QF), Cako (1R), Santamaria/Wong (1R), Krawczyk (qR), Kopinski (1R), Christian/Lao (1R), Guillermo/Smith (R1), Sabastani Leon (San Jose State ’14)/Urbina (Q), Duva/Luk (Q)

$15,000 ITF Nanjing, China
1R: Ayaka Okuno (UGA ‘13*)
Doubles: Okuno (QF)

$15,000 ITF Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
QF: Shelby Talcott (Iowa ’15)
Q: Aleah Marrow (Syracuse ’14), Kanika Vaidya (Columbia ’16)
Doubles: Vaidya (QF), Talcott (1R)

$15,000 ITF Manacor, Mallorca, Spain
QF: Lauren Embree (Florida ’13)
1R: Andrea Ka (San Francisco ’16), Quinn Gleason (Notre Dame ’16), Daiana Negreanu (Texas Arlington ’11), Yuki Chiang (Pepperdine ’14*)
Q: Andrea Villarreal (Southeastern Louisiana ’16), Tiffany William (Middle Tennessee ’15), Natalia Maynetto (Alabama ’16)
Doubles: Ka (QF), Negreanu (QF), Chiang (1R)

$15,000 ITF Hammamet, Tunisia
Champion: Connie Hsu (Penn ‘12*)
1R: Eleni Kordolaimi (Houston ’15)
Q: Jessica Ho (Duke ‘16*)
Doubles: Hsu (Champion), Kordolaimi (SF)

$15,000 ITF Antayla, Turkey
Q: Akiko Okuda (Dartmouth ’15), Xue Zhang (Wake Forest ’16)
Doubles: Okuda (1R), Zhang (1R)

* denotes player turned professional before completing eligibility

Joey’s Bio – I got hooked on college tennis as a high school junior and would eventually attend The Ohio State University where I worked at the Varsity Tennis Center for 3 years and was a Student SID for the men’s tennis team my senior year in 2014. Upon graduation, I interned at the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) before serving time as their Digital Coordinator. Aside from CTT, I contribute on the Tennis Recruiting Network and you can follow me on Twitter at @JoeyDillon