No. 3 Women’s Tennis Sweeps No. 11 Pepperdine To Advance To NCAA Final Four 

The No. 3 Ohio State women’s tennis team kept its season alive with a 4-0 sweep of No. 11 Pepperdine in the NCAA quarterfinals at the Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga., advancing to the NCAA Final Four.

Ohio State’s No. 23 Flora Johnson and Luciana Perry opened the doubles session, beating Pepperdine’s No. 16 Ziva Falkner and Sonja Zhiyenbayeva 6-1 on court one. Pepperdine’s Chantal Sauvant and Anastasiia Grechkina upset Ohio State’s No. 34 Hephzibah Oluwadare and Teah Chavez 6-2 on court two, before the Buckeyes’ pairing of Sophia Cisse-Ignatiev and Audrey Spencer beat the Waves’ Duru Soke and Shihomi Leong 6-4 to claim the doubles point..

In singles play, Ohio State’s No. 4 Perry defeated No. 46 Zhiyenbayeva 6-1, 7-6 (7-2), giving Ohio State a 2-0 advantage. The Buckeyes’ Cisse-Ignatiev followed that up with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over No. 35 Grechkina, pushing Ohio State just one game away from the Final Four.

After dropping the first set 6-1, Ohio State’s No. 76 Nao Nishino took the final two sets, 6-2, 6-4 over Pepperdine’s No. 121 Soke to advance the Buckeyes to the Final Four with a 4-0 sweep.

The win sent Ohio State to the Final Four for just the second time in program history, joining the 2017 Buckeye squad that ultimately fell to Stanford 4-3 in a heartbreaker in the tournament semifinals.  

_{Image courtesy of Ohio State Athletics}