Women's Tennis Opens Season with a Pair of Home Matches

Friday, February 5

Cincinnati, Ohio - Camargo Racquet Club

7 PM

Xavier University

Illinois - Chicago

Women's Tennis Opens Season with a Pair of Home Matches

02.04.21 | Women's Tennis

Musketeers open the season with UIC on Friday, face Eastern Michigan on Saturday

By: Hayley Schletker, Xavier Athletic Communications

CINCINNATI – Xavier women's tennis opens up the spring 2021 schedule this weekend with a pair of home matches, starting with University of Illinois - Chicago on Friday evening at Camargo Racquet Club. The action continues Saturday evening with Eastern Michigan at Eastern Hills Indoor Tennis Club.

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

ILLINOIS-CHICAGO

Xavier opens up play on Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. at the Camargo Racquet Club in Cincinnati. The match will not be live streamed.
UIC is 0-1 on the season after opening up the season at Marquette last Saturday, falling 4-3 to the Golden Eagles.
The Flames were 8-2 when the 2020 season was called off, closing out the season on a five-match winning streak.
Xavier is 3-4 all time against UIC, with the last match-up occurring in 2014-15, a 7-0 win for the Musketeers.

EASTERN MICHIGAN

The Musketeers return to action on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. at Eastern Hills. The match will be live streamed here.
The Eagles are 1-1 so far on the season, opening up the season with a 4-3 win over Cleveland State, then falling to Youngstown State. EMU will also face the Dayton Flyers on Friday evening.
EMU was 10-7 in 2020 when the season was called off.
During the 2020 season, the Eagles picked up wins in two of their final three matches, over Youngstown State and Cleveland State.
Xavier is 3-3 all-time against Eastern Michigan, dating back to 1995-96 season. The last match-up was in 2016, when Xavier took the 7-0 road win.

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.