Student athletes take home degrees at Fall Commencement

It’s something of a light week in Ohio State sports, with student athletes taking a break, having wrapped up exams last week and starting winter break. However, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been an exciting week in Buckeye athletics, as 57 student athletes received their degrees from the Ohio State University at Fall Commencement Sunday. Included in this group were Julia Rizk, an NCAA indoor mile champion, eight-time All-American Anthony McCollum of the pistol team and two-time Big Ten pommel horse champion Alec Yoder. Congrats to all the graduates!

Women’s ice hockey splits series in Vegas

One of the few teams in action this weekend, Ohio State women’s ice hockey traveled to Las Vegas to take on Princeton in a two-game series Saturday and Sunday. The fifth-ranked Buckeyes split the series with the No. 7 Tigers, dropping the first match before equalizing things Sunday night.

Saturday, Ohio State fell 4-2 to the Tigers after falling behind early. After Princeton opened the scoring on a power play in the first period, Ohio State bounced back with a goal from redshirt senior defenseman Jincy Dunne. The Tigers took yet another lead in the first, which was balanced with a score from junior forward Liz Schepers to bring things to two-all at the end of the first. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes’ attack couldn’t capitalize in the remaining two periods, giving Ohio State its second-straight loss.

Sunday was a different story for Ohio State, which was dominant through three periods. Midway through the first, Schepers found the back of the net to give the Buckeyes their first lead of the series. Though Princeton would equalize on offense, the Tigers couldn’t contain Schepers, who followed up with her second goal of the first period. Ohio State kept the pressure on in the second period, adding another goal on the back of freshman defenseman Teghan Inglis. Then, in the third, sophomore forward Gabby Rosenthal and junior forward Tatum Skaggs capped off the Buckeyes’ scoring to secure the 5-2 win.

With the weekend’s games in the books, the Buckeyes move to 11-5-4 on the year. They’ll have a break until the new year, when the Buckeyes are scheduled to face Minnesota State in Columbus.

Women’s basketball drops decision at top-ranked Stanford

After a full week off following a 70-57 win over Radford, the Ohio State women’s basketball team fell to No. 1 Stanford in Palo Alto 71-52. Sophomore guard Janai Crooms led the Buckeyes in scoring with 15 points on the night, while sophomore forward Dorka Juhasz added 10. The Buckeyes shot under 39%, while the Cardinal connected on 50% of shots from the field.

With the loss, Ohio State falls to 6-4 on the season. The Buckeyes don’t have long to wait before they’re back in action, with their next game scheduled for Tuesday on the road against Sacramento State.

In other news...

• Ohio State fencing might be on hiatus, but two Buckeye fencers competed in World Cup tournaments over the weekend. Freshman Julieta Toledo competed for Mexico in the Senior Women’s Sabre World Cup in Utah, bringing home a 29th-place finish out of 185 competitors. Senior foil captain Gabriela Cecchini competed on behalf of Brazil in the Individual Senior Women’s Foil World Cup in France, finishing 141st of 205 fencers.
• Given Ohio State men’s tennis seemingly perpetual success on the court, it makes sense that alums would continue to have success on professional tours. That trend is continuing, as three Ohio State former Buckeyes ranked in the ATP top-200 professional rankings. Blaz Rola, a three-time All-American during his time in Columbus, is the highest-ranked at No. 146. Rola is followed by Mikael Torpegaard at No. 161 and J.J. Wolf at No. 190.
• Also on the professional side, two former Ohio State golfers, Daniel Wetterich and Will Grimmer, competed for their status on the 2020 Korn Ferry Tour. With competition last week in the Korn Ferry Tour Q-School Finals in Florida, both finished tied for 119th with a total score of 213 and earned conditional status for the 2020 season.
• With the 2020 men’s gymnastics season just around the corner, the Buckeyes emerge as the No. 6 team in the conference according to the Big Ten preseason poll. Michigan took the top spot in the early rankings. The men’s gymnastics season is scheduled to open January 11 with the alumni exhibition.
• Ohio State men’s ice hockey’s junior goalie Tommy Nappier brought home Big Ten weekly honors last week for the fourth time this season. Nappier earned Big Ten Third Star of the Week recognition following the Buckeyes’ two-game series against Minnesota in which Nappier allowed just three goals.
• As postseason honors continue to roll in for fall sports, 11 athletes from the women’s volleyball team, 15 members of the women’s soccer team and 11 from the men’s team earned Academic All-Big Ten honors for the fall season. Academic All-Big Ten honorees must be varsity athletes with a grade point average of at least 3.0.
• Related, freshman field hockey player Mackenzie Allessie earned third team Longstreth/NFHCA Division I All-American honors. Allessie is the first Buckeye to make the national list since 2015.