FINAL RESULTS
WESTERVILLE, Ohio – An epic showdown worked its way to an epic finish for the Otterbein women's tennis team on campus Thursday afternoon, as the Cardinals survived a thrilling 5-4 slugfest with Ohio Northern in a rematch of last year's OAC Tournament Championship.
The Cardinals (11-4, 4-0 OAC) stay unbeaten in conference play after the four-hour match and are now firmly in the driver's seat for a third consecutive regular-season title. ONU slips back to 13-5 on the year and 2-1 in league play.
Otterbein had ALL momentum after sweeping a trio of crazy tight and competitive doubles courts, before holding off a wild singles rally from the Polar Bears in which the visitors took four of six.
In the end, it all came down to junior standout
Lillia Walter on the No. 2 line as she prevailed in a third set (amongst all remaining spectators) to lift her squad.
"That is a damn good team in Ohio Northern," head coach
Tyler Stephen said afterward. "We saw their potential in the finals last year and knew it was going to be a fight today – so hats off to them. They didn't hang their heads after doubles and instead brought things right back to us by playing absolutely remarkable in singles. They put themselves in a position to win the match… but Lillia was just a bulldog at the finish line."
DOUBLES ACTION:
The three duo matches could now have been much closer.
Erin Storrer and Olivia Eckeles won 8-6 on the top line before Walter and
Aubrey McMahon did so by the same count just below.
Third doubles ended up going to a break – as
Julia Gillin and
Rachelle Moses stayed the course for an 8-7 win after pulling away in the decisive session, 7-3.
SINGLES ACTION:
Despite those three blows, Ohio Northern admirably threw a dynamite counter punch across the individual showdowns to eventually knot the team scoreboard at 4-4. ONU made quick work on lines three, four and six while Storrer did what she does and cruised 6-0, 6-2 in the headline match.
Eckels had early momentum with a 6-1 victory in her first set, only to see opponent Katherine O'Connell storm back with the same exact margins to overtake the showdown.
That left everything standing between Walter and a game Julia Hurst (ONU) at second singles. Walter escaped a first-set breaker to win 7-6, but lost momentum in the second after Hurst churned out a gritty 7-5 win…
Walter held across yet another tight/narrow third set, this time prevailing 6-4 to erupt her teammates and keep the Cardinals unscathed as a group.
"Most people expect us to always win 1-2 in this league, with who we have atop the lineup," Stephen said. "So there was definite pressure on Lillia at the end… but every single one of us knew she'd pull through. If you told me today on the car ride over to campus that it'd be 4-4 and come down to
Lillia Walter, I would take it every single time."
MORE WORK TO DO:
A pair of Cleveland-area schools and Marietta now stand in the way of another perfect regular season for Otterbein. Baldwin Wallace comes to town this weekend before a finale at John Carroll is scheduled for April 27.
The Marietta match was recently cancelled due to flooding on that campus and is in the works of being rescheduled.
