Season Preview: Women's Tennis to use balanced approach in quest for OAC Championship
By Tim Glon
ADA — The Ohio Northern women's tennis team is hoping to use a balanced approach in its quest for an Ohio Athletic Conference championship in 2021 under 20th-year head coach Scott Wills.
The Polar Bears feature a good blend of experience and youth with three fifth-year seniors and six first or second year players.
"We have good balance and diversity on many fronts including match play experience, talent level, style of play, and athleticism," Wills said. "This provides us with a great deal of flexibility and environment to learn from each other to get better as a team each practice and match."
Leading the list of returners are fifth-year seniors Katie Curry (Oxford/Talawanda), Jordan Dodson (Worthington) and Mackenzie Wills (Ada).
All three ladies are four-year letterwinners with 339 career victories between them.
Curry is a returning All-Conference honoree and ranks 8th all-time in ONU history with a 131-53 career record. She also ranks sixth all-time in ONU history with a singles mark of 73-20 and is 36-9 overall in OAC play.
Dodson has a career record of 47-20 and is undefeated at No. 5 singles and is 18-5 at No. 6 singles. She is 19-5 all-time in OAC competition.
Wills ranks second all-time in ONU history with 82 singles wins in her four years. She needs just one singles win to tie the school record of 83 set by Meghan Letizia from 2012-16. She is also second all-time with a career record of 161-48 and is 5th all-time with a 79-30 mark in doubles matches.
Wills boasts a 40-8 overall record in OAC action.
Junior Ola Latala (Grosse Isle, Mich.) returns to the Polar Bears squad after going 39-9 as a freshman in 2016-17.
Three sophomores also return after solid freshman campaigns in 2019-20.
Regan Landis (Elkhart, Ind./Concord) went 24-7, Flo Sanchez (West Chester/Lakota West) was 10-4 and Jeorgia Templin (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) was 25-7.
Incoming freshmen Olivia Kesner (Lima/Central Catholic) and Mykaela Schriber (Kenton) will also be key contributors and battle for spots in the starting lineup.
"The ladies have been working hard on the court and in the classroom," Wills said. "We are just so grateful to be playing again and we are looking forward to the challenge of competing for an OAC title."
With a career record of 381-102 (OAC record of 141-16), Wills is the all time wins leader in Ohio college women's tennis history, which includes all NCAA Division I, II, III programs and was recently recognized by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association as one of the top 10 all-time winning women's tennis coaches in the nation.
The Polar Bears will play a round-robin league schedule against the other eight schools that sponsor women's tennis to determine the OAC Regular Season Champion.
Since the league is not allowing non-conference play in the regular season, OAC schools have been permitted to schedule additional match play among member schools. With this provision, ONU has scheduled additional competition with Marietta, Otterbein and Mount Union that will not count in the OAC standings.
The OAC Tournament will be a four-team affair held in its traditional setting at the Lindner Tennis Center, home of the Western and Southern Open, in Mason May 7-8.