This Week's Outlook: The College of Wooster women's tennis team is off to Kenyon College for this week's North Coast Athletic Conference Championships. Wooster (11-8, 1-2 NCAC East), which earned the third seed from the NCAC East Division, opens play at 1:30 p.m. on Friday against DePauw University (6-12, 2-1 NCAC West). The winning team advances to Saturday's semifinal matches, while the losing teams play in Saturday's fifth- or seventh-place matches.
Media Coverage: Fans can follow the women's tennis team's Twitter account @WooTennis for periodic updates and check WoosterAthletics.com for end-of-day recaps.
Last Meeting: Wooster beat DePauw 6-3 on February 19, 2022. The Scots had a 2-1 lead after doubles with wins in the second and third flights. First-year Janaki Jagannathan (Malvern, Pa./Whitmore School (W.Va.)) and junior Katie Materick (Western Springs, Ill./Lyons Twp.) scored an 8-7 (5) win at second doubles, and sophomore Kim Nguyen (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington North) and first-year Cherry Patlolla (Hyderabad, India/The McDonald College (Australia)) won 8-4 at No. 3. In singles, Wooster took flights three through six in straight sets. Jagannathan went 6-1, 6-4 at No. 3, Nguyen only dropped one game during a 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 4, Materick went 6-3, 6-1 at No. 5, and sophomore Abby Aitken (Sterling, Ill./Sterling) had a pair of 6-4 sets go her way at No. 6.
A Look-Back at Wooster's Last NCAC Tournament Appearance: Wooster last played in the NCAC Tournament in 2019, as the 2020 event was canceled due to COVID, and 2021 featured a modified tournament with just the winner of the East and West Divisions squaring off. In 2019, Wooster ended its season on a high note, as the Scots improved one spot from its seed by taking the NCAC fifth-place match from archrival Wittenberg University 5-1. Wooster flipped the script from the regular-season meeting, which was won by Wittenberg 7-2, starting with a tightly-contested doubles sweep. Meklit Minassie and Emma Saxton won 8-3 at No. 3, with that line later backed up by Qingyue Li and Shannon Sertz at No. 1 (8-7 (2)) and Sarah Duran and Laura Haley at No. 2 (8-7 (6)). DePauw posted a 5-0 win over Wooster in the quarterfinals.
Scots Have Sights Set on Top-Four Finish: A win on Friday over DePauw guarantees Wooster a top-four finish, which would be a first for the program since 1999. Wooster's fifth-place finish at the 2019 NCAC Tournament was the program's highest since the 2014 conference tourney.
Back to Double Digits: Wooster won its 10th match of the year on April 9, when the Scots downed Allegheny College 7-2. It marked the third-straight non-COVID-impacted season Wooster hit double-digit wins, as the Scots had 15 during the 2017-18 season and 12 in 2018-19. Wooster last had three consecutive full seasons with at least 10 wins from 1997-99.
Scots Break Into Regional Rankings: Wooster's women's tennis team jumped into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Region rankings on April 8, with the program checking in at 18th. It marked Wooster's first regional ranking since 2018.
The Hunt for 20: Jagannathan is heading into the NCAC Tournament with 17 singles wins on the year, a total tied for fifth in single-season program history. Should the first-year get three this weekend, she will be just the second Scot to win 20 singles matches in a season. W Association Hall of Famer Kirsten Patton is the lone Scot to win 20 singles matches in a year, and she accomplished that in 1986.
Do We Hear 17?: Jagannathan has 15 wins at third singles this year, the most since Estela Pereira won a flight-record 17 in 1988. Jagannathan is tied with Fran Kielbowicz for the second-most third-singles wins in single-season program history. Kielbowicz won 15 matches in 1976.
Ngyuen, Materick Consistent Winners for Scots: Wooster has three players with double-digit dual-match wins in singles this year. Ngyuen sports an 11-6 record in the fourth flight, while Materick is 12-4 at No. 5. Ngyuen's wins at No. 4 are tied for the third-most in the flight, and trails Morgan Wagers' 13 from 2018 and Shannon Day's 12 from 1989. Materick is behind Kirsten Schriver (15, 1997) and Jill Chokey (14, 1992) on the fifth-singles single-season program leaderboard.
Double-Up: In all, five Wooster players have at least 10 singles wins on the year. Sophomore Otilia Oita (North Olmsted, Ohio/North Olmsted) and Patlolla each have 10 singles wins. Oita is in year two holding down the top singles flight.
Scots Knock Off John Carroll: Wooster scored an early-season 5-4 victory over John Carroll University, which is the five-time defending Ohio Athletic Conference champion. Jagannathan's 3-6, 7-5, 1-0 (3) win over Morgan Little secured the victory for the Scots.
Talking Streaks: Wooster won five straight matches from March 5-20. Individually, Jagannathan strung together a seven-match run in singles from February 27-March 20, which included a 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (14-12) thriller over NCAC power Denison University's Monique Brual. In fact, Jagannathan has won 12 of her last 13 singles matches, with other key wins coming against Kenyon College's Anna Winslow (6-4, 7-6 (5)) and Oberlin College's Isabelle Olaes (7-6 (0), 3-2 (retired)). Materick sports the longest winning streak of the year at 10. Her run started with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Case Western Reserve University's Shreyaa Mukund on March 4 and ended in the dual with Kenyon on April 13. Materick (March 4-20) and Ngyuen (March 4-20) have the longest doubles winning streaks on the year at six. They were partners for four of the six wins during the streak.