No. 40 Women's Tennis defeats Otterbein 4-0 to win third consecutive OAC Tournament championship

MASON — The No. 40-ranked Ohio Northern women's tennis team defeated Otterbein 4-0 in the finals of the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament outdoors on a chilly Saturday morning at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

The Polar Bears have now won their third consecutive OAC Tournament title and the program's ninth overall.

The Basics

• Records: #40 Ohio Northern (18-4 Overall), Otterbein (6-10 Overall).
• The Polar Bears receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA III Tournament.
• Venue: Lindner Family Tennis Center - Mason, Ohio.

Match Highlights

• Northern won the doubles point by taking courts 2 and 3. 
• Senior Jenna Bell (Latrobe, Pa.) combined with sophomore Caroline Robinson (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central) to win 6-0 at No. 2 doubles.
• Sophomore Lauren Okrainec (Ingersoll, ON, Canada/Ingersoll Collegiate) and freshman Amy Grace Beebe (Hudson/Cuyahoga Valley Christian) won 6-1 at No. 3 doubles. 
• ONU clinched the title by winning courts 3, 4 and 6 just two minutes apart.
• Sophomore Leah Schleibaum (West Chester/Lakota West) won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6 singles to make it 2-0.
• Senior Jamie Hurst (Granger, Ind./Penn) won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 4 singles to make it 3-0.
• Senior Abby Cruser (Pendleton, Ind./Pendleton Heights) won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3 singles just moments later to seal the championship.

Notables

• Ohio Northern is the No. 1 seed in the tournament, while Otterbein is the No. 2 seed.
• The Polar Bears have won nine OAC Tournament titles in program history, including the last three.
• Northern is now 9-11 all-time in OAC Tournament semifinal matches.
• In tournament play, the matches are played to completion, where the match is stopped as soon as a team reaches four team points.
• ONU won its second consecutive OAC Regular Season title this season.
• Northern was leading on the other three singles courts when the match was completed.
• Bell was leading 6-3, 1-2 at No. 1 singles, Okrainec was leading 6-2, 3-0 at No. 2 and freshman Audrey Austin (Perry) was leading 6-2, 2-3 at No. 5.
• No. 1 doubles was abandoned with Cruser and Hurst leading 5-2 once the doubles point was secured.
• Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with the Cardinals by a 35-24 margin.
• Thus far this season, Cruser leads the Polar Bears with 38 victories, going a team-best 23-8 in singles and 15-12 in doubles.
• Hurst is second with a 20-9 singles mark.
• Bell has a team-best 20 doubles wins.
• Cruser is 138-80 overall in her career. She is 5th all-time in ONU history with 79 singles wins and is ninth with 138 overall wins.
• Bell is 137-78 overall in her career. Her 68 singles wins leaves her just two wins short from cracking the school's top-10 in that category. She ranks 10th all-time with 137 overall wins.
• Hurst is 123-65 overall in her career. Her 72 singles wins puts her eighth all-time in ONU history in that category.
• Ohio Northern is in its 53rd season of women's tennis with a 671-279-1 record, a winning percentage of .706.
• Fourth-year head coach Sean Swisher is 71-20 at the helm of the ONU women's tennis team, a winning percentage of .780.

Up Next

• The 2026 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Selection Show will air Monday, May 4th at Noon ET on NCAA.com.