Women's Tennis Hosts Miami (Ohio) and Bowling Green this Weekend

Friday, February 19

Cincinnati, Ohio

6 PM

Xavier University

Miami (Ohio)

Women's Tennis Hosts Miami (Ohio) and Bowling Green this Weekend

02.18.21 | Women's Tennis

Both matches to be played at Eastern Hills

By: Hayley Schletker, Xavier Athletic Communications

CINCINNATI – Xavier women's tennis returns to action this weekend, hosting Miami (Ohio) on Friday, Feb. 19 at 6:00 p.m., and returning Saturday, Feb. 20 at 4:30 p.m. to host Bowling Green, with both matches occurring at Eastern Hills.

All season, matches held at Eastern Hills Indoor Tennis Club can be watched at GoXavier.com/WTENLiveStreams.

MIAMI (OHIO)

The RedHawks are 4-2 on the season, and have won three straight coming into the match, over Cleveland State, Dayton and Butler.
Miami finished last season with a 4-7 record before the season was called off.
Last season, the Musketeers defeated the RedHawks, 4-3, on February 21. Xavier took the doubles point and a win for Natalie Moyer in the No. 5 singles spot to take a 2-0 lead. Miami tied it up with wins in No. 1 and No. 6 singles, but Anna Roggenburk's win in the No. 2 spot and Kaitlin Ruether's win in the No. 4 sealed the victory.
Xavier is 8-8 with the RedHawks dating back to 2002. Xavier has won the last six meetings.

BOWLING GREEN

The Falcons are 1-1 on the season, topping Bellarmine and falling to Notre Dame.
BGSU was 6-3 when the 2020 season was called off. The Falcons won three straight matches before the season came to a close.
Xavier is 6-13 all-time against the Falcons. The last match-up occurred in 2018, a 3-4 loss for the Musketeers in Bowling Green. Ahmeir Kyle was the only current Musketeer who played in that match, playing No. 1 singles and No. 3 doubles.

LAST TIME OUT

Xavier suffered its first setback last weekend, moving to 3-1 on the season after falling 5-2 at Virginia Tech.
Xavier fell behind 1-0 after Virginia Tech took the doubles point, winning the No. 1 spot over Ahmeir Kyle and Emily Thomas, 6-2, and the No. 2 spot over Anna Roggenburk and Kat Lyman, 6-1. Kaitlin Ruether and Imani Graham were trailing 5-3 when the point was decided.
Virginia Tech went ahead 2-0 with the first singles decision, taking the No. 2 spot against Anna Roggenburk, 6-3, 6-4. Xavier responded with a win in the No. 1 spot with a come-back win for Ahmeir Kyle, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 to pull within one, 2-1.
Xavier fell behind 3-1 with a 6-3, 7-5 win in the No. 6 spot over Lucy Octave. Xavier responded with a win in the No. 3 spot for Kat Lyman, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3, to pull back within one, 3-2.
Virginia Tech took the final two points, securing the win in the No. 5 spot over Kaitlin Ruether in two tightly contested sets, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (9-7), and then grabbing the final point in the No. 4 spot over Imani Graham, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4.

THE TEAM: RETURNERS

Xavier returns five from the 2020 season, with all getting routine action in dual play.
Ahmeir Kyle played primarily in the No. 1 singles spot, finishing the shortened dual season with a 7-5 record. Kyle also had an 8-5 record in No. 1 doubles, partnered with both Emily Thomas and Kaitlin Ruether.
Anna Roggenburk was Xavier's No. 2 singles player for most of the season, finishing with four wins. She also collected another win playing in the No. 1 singles spot. She ended the season with a 9-5 record in doubles, going 8-5 in the No. 2 spot with 2020 graduate Rachael Reichenbach. She also went 1-0 in No. 3 doubles with Lauren Fitz-Randolph, also a 2020 grad.
Emily Thomas had a 3-4 record in singles play during dual action, going 2-0 in the No. 2 spot and 1-4 in the No. 3 spot. She also posted a 4-3 record in doubles plays during duals, playing with Ahmeir Kyle in the No. 1 spot.
Kaitlin Ruether was Xavier's primary No. 4 singles player in 2019, posting a 7-1 record in the spot, and a 9-5 record overall in dual singles. Ruether posted a 6-6 record in dual doubles, including a 4-2 record in No. 1 doubles with Ahmeir Kyle.
Natalie Moyer posted a 6-4 record in singles during dual play, going 4-4 in the No. 5 spot, but also posting 1-0 records in the No. 4 and No. 6 spots. Moyer collected three doubles wins during dual play, including a 1-0 record in the No. 2 spot with Kaitlin Ruether and wins with 2020 graduates Rachael Reichenbach and Lauren Fitz-Randolph in the No. 3 spot.

THE TEAM: NEWCOMERS

Xavier added a pair of freshmen to the roster, Imani Graham and Blessing Nwaozuzu.
Graham is from St. Johns, Florida (Creekside High School) and is currently ranked No. 53 in the country. The 5-star recruit had been ranked as high as No. 7 nationally according to tennisrecruiting.net. She was the 2019 FHSAA Individual State Champion and was named a member of the All-County Girls Tennis Team in 2019.
Nwaozuzu is 4-star recruit from Orange, Ohio (Orange High School). Coming out high school, she had a high ranking of No. 61 nationally according to tennisrecruiting.net. Nwaozuzu was a 2019 Midwest L2 Open Champion and was CVC Conference Player of the Year in 2018 and 2019.
Xavier also added a pair of transfers in Kat Lyman and Lucy Octave.
Lyman, a transfer from West Virginia, was a four-star recruit with a national ranking as high as No. 26 (TennisRecruiting.net) during her prep career. As a freshman at WVU in 2020, Lyman collected 11 total wins in a shortened dual season. She has four years of eligibility remaining.
Octave joins Xavier as a graduate transfer from Utah State. In her four seasons as an Aggie, Octave recorded 91 wins in singles and doubles, the 10^th most in program history. Her 51 total singles win and 40 doubles wins both rank in the top 12 in Utah State's career records as well.