Women's Tennis Closes out Regular Season Against Marquette

Saturday, April 17

Cincinnati, Ohio

4:30 PM (indoor)

Xavier University

Marquette

Women's Tennis Closes out Regular Season Against Marquette

04.16.21 | Women's Tennis

Musketeers prepare for 2021 BIG EAST Championship next week

By: Hayley Schletker, Xavier Athletic Communications

CINCINNATI – Xavier women's tennis (13-3) will close out the regular season on Saturday, April 17, hosting Marquette at the Jim and Mary Brockhoff Tennis Facility on Xavier's campus at 1:00 p.m.

MARQUETTE

The Golden Eagles are 5-5, with wins over UIC, Milwaukee, North Dakota and Omaha.
Marquette was 8-6 when the 2020 season was canceled.
The Musketeers fell to the Golden Eagles, 4-3, in 2020.
Xavier is 6-3 in matches against the Golden Eagles dating back to 2014 when the Musketeers joined the BIG EAST.
In the 2019 BIG EAST Championships, Marquette fell, 4-3, to Villanova in the first round.

LAST WEEKEND

Xavier women's tennis moved to 13-3 on the season with a pair of 4-3 wins over DePaul and Butler
Against DePaul, Anna Roggenburk and Imani Graham combined to take a 6-1 win on the No. 2 doubles court, their eighth win of the season. DePaul responded with a 6-4 win on the No. 1 court over Ahmeir Kyle and Emily Thomas, but Kaitlin Ruether and Lucy Octave partnered for the 6-4 win on the No. 3 court to secure the point for the Musketeers.
After Xavier went up, 1-0, DePaul responded with the first three singles decisions, taking the No. 6 court against Lucy Octave, 6-1, 6-3, the No. 1 court against Ahmeir Kyle, 6-4, 7-5 (5), and the No. 4 court against Kaitlin Ruether, 6-2, 6-4, to go ahead 3-1.
Imani Graham picked up the first singles decision for the Musketeers, on the No. 3 court, 7-5, 6-3, to make it 3-2 DePaul. The win is Graham's 11th win of the year.
On the No. 5 court, Emily Thomas battled back after falling in the first set, 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4 to take the point in three, tying the match up at 3-3 with her sixth single win of the season.
On the final court, No. 2 singles, Anna Roggenburk fell in the first set and battled through tie breakers in the second set to win the point 3-6, 7-6 (8), 6-3, and secure the match win for the Musketeers, 4-3. Roggenburk has won 11 singles matches on the season.
Against Butler, Butler took the doubles point with wins on the No. 3 court, 6-3, against Emily Thomas and Natalie Moyer and the No. 2 court, 6-4, against Kaitlin Ruether and Lucy Octave.
After going down 1-0, Xavier responded with the first two doubles points, with Anna Roggenburk taking the No. 1 court, 6-0, 6-2, to tie the match and Emily Thomas putting Xavier ahead 2-1, with a 6-3, 6-1 win on the No. 4 court.
Butler pulled back into a tie with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Kaitlin Ruether on the No. 3 court, but Imani Graham's 12 singles win of the year, a 6-4, 6-3 victory on the No. 2 court, put the Musketeers ahead for good.
Lucy Octave sealed the win for the Musketeers, taking a 6-3, 6-1 win on the No. 5 court to make it 4-2 Xavier.
Butler took the final decision, a 6-3, 6-3 win on the No. 6 court against Natalie Moyer.

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.