Olympic Recap: Men’s Golf Gets Individual And Team Win, Women’s Hockey Win Streak Continues, Men’s Volleyball Drops Two
Ohio State’s men’s golf team came back to Columbus with an individual and team win from the Southwestern Invitational in Thousand Oaks, Calif., at North Ranch Country Club. Both the Buckeyes and Neal Shipley finished with just a one stroke lead to take home first place from the tournament.
Seven different teams held at least a share of the lead at some point in the final round, but Ohio State ended up coming out on top at -13, one stroke ahead of UNLV, the first team win of the season and the first since April of 2023 when it came out on top of the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate.
Shipley finished at -12 individually, narrowly beating Taehoon Song of Washington (-11) to earn the first victor of his collegiate career. Shipley birdied six of eight holes during a stretch in the final round to catapult himself into the lead, which he would hold with two pars on the final two holes.
Both of Jack Vojtko (-2) and Maxwell Moldovan (-1) also finished under par and finished tied for 17th, and in 22nd place, respectively. Adam Wallin (+3) ended the tournament tied for 32nd place and Jackson Chandler (+4), who played only as an individual, tied for 38th. Patrick Schmucking (+8) was tied for 58th when the last round came to an end.
It was the freshman Vojtko’s first time participating in an event in his college career, earning his 2-under par score with rounds of 71, 70 and another 70 with help from nine birdies and three eagles over the three rounds.
After the first two rounds, the Buckeyes held the team lead, helped by a 273 (-11) combined score in the second round, but Shipley’s 65 in the final round helped boost them to victory.
Ohio State is back in action at the Puerto Rico Classic which takes place at the Grand Reserve Golf Club in Puerto Rico from Feb. 11-13
Women’s Hockey Keeps Win Streak Alive
The Buckeyes won two close games over St. Cloud State last weekend starting with a 4-2 win on Jan. 26 in which four different players scored each of the goals.
Cayla Barnes, Sloane Matthews and Jenna Buglioni each scored in the first period to take a commanding 3-0 lead before a scoreless second period. Makenna Webster added the fourth goal in the third period before Emma Gentry score her second goal of the game for the Huskies.
Raygan Kirk was in net for Ohio State and had 15 saves on 17 shots on goal from St. Cloud State.
Gentry scored again in the next game to take a 1-0 lead in the first period, but Kiara Zanon answered with just over two minutes to go until the first intermission and the two teams went into their locker rooms tied up.
Webster scored the only goal of the second period on an assist from Hadley Hartmetz to take a lead before Joy Dunne scored in the third period , assisted by Lauren Bernard and Zanon. Taylor Lind added the last goal for the Huskies with less than a minute to go in the game to get to the final score of 3-2.
Ohio State has won nine in a row and looks to keep growing that streak against Bemidji State on Friday and Saturday.
Men’s Volleyball Drops Two To Penn State
After starting the season with six straight wins – three of the over ranked opponents – the Buckeyes hosted No. 9 Penn State at the Covelli Center on Jan. 25 and lost in four sets.
Jacob Pasteur, who leads the team in kills, didn’t play for Ohio State due to a lower body injury. Daniel Hurley finished with 16 kills, a career-high and Ben Putnam tied his career best with 10 kills.
It wasn’t enough, though with the Nittany Lions taking the final two sets of the night to take home a win over the top-ranked Buckeyes.
Just three days later, Ohio State headed to Pennsylvania to match up against Penn State again, but dropped the match in five sets after winning the first two.
Pasteur was back and had 16 kills for the night, bringing him up to 1,227 in his career which takes him into a tie for 10th all time in program history.
The Buckeyes are back in action on Sunday against Lindenwood at the Covelli Center at 1 p.m.