The Ohio State women's tennis team continues action this weekend at the Kentucky Invitational in Lexington, Ky., where four Buckeyes will be competing. The Buckeyes will face familiar competition in the form of fellow Big Ten squads from Illinois, Penn State and Michigan. Other teams at the tournament, held at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex, include Louisville, Vanderbilt, Virginia, host-team Kentucky, Armstrong Atlantic State University, the 2009 DII national champion, and Abilene Christian, Louisville, East Tennessee State and Eastern Kentucky.
In Lexington for the Buckeyes are junior Cami Hubbs, sophomore Kelsey Haviland and freshmen Gabby Steele and Fidan Manashirova, who will be making their collegiate debuts. Match play starts Friday at 9 a.m. and continues through Sunday, with four 16-player singles draws and two 16-team doubles draws. Because of rain in the area, all Friday matches have been moved indoors.
Full tournament information, including updated brackets, can be found here. http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/w-tennis/spec-rel/100609aaa.html
The Lineups
Flight A singles, a 16-player bracket, begins for the Buckeyes with Cami Hubbs taking on Marisa Lambropolous of Illinois and Kelsey Haviland going up against Vanderbilt's Kelly Ulery.
Gabby Steele will be in Flight B, facing off against Penn State's Marla Prishlyak in the opening round. Flight C features Fidan Manashirova, who begins play vs. Eastern Kentucky's Anouk Foure.
In Flight A doubles the duo of Manashirova and Steele will open play against Michigan's Muresan and Sulahian and Haviland and Hubbs will start against Beckmann and Muller-Wehlau of AASU.
Last Time Out
Buckeyes seniors Kirsten Flower and Christina Keesey, along with junior Paloma Escobedo, are coming off the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships last weekend. Flower advanced out of the first round with a 6-2, 7-5 win over No. 2 seed Martina Pavalec of Wake Forest. She was then downed by Aeriel Ellis of Texas in the second round in three sets. The Buckeye senior won the first set, 7-5, but then dropped the last two, 7-5, 7-5.
Escobedo downed Kelsey Garland of Texas Tech in the opening round, 6-1, 6-2, but was eliminated by TCU's Kayla Duncan in three sets. Escobedo won the first set, 6-3, but Duncan rallied to win the last two sets, 6-3, 6-1, to advance to the third round for a chance to earn a spot in the qualifying round.
In doubles, Flower and classmate Keesey, the No. 3 seed in the draw, lost to Davidson and Urbina of Texas A&M, 8-1, in the first round.
Up Next
Ohio State will be back in action when it travels to Evanston, Ill., for the ITA Midwest Regional Championships Oct. 22-27.
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