Both Florida State and Ohio State started their spring seasons with heavyweight schedules—a combined 15 Top-25 opponents between them to date. And that trend will continue when they face each other Sunday at College MatchDay in a battle of Top-10 teams in the Tennis Channel/USTA Top 25 poll.

 

“When you come here [to Ohio State], we want to play against the best,” explained OSU head coach Melissa Schaub, whose 7-3 squad faced ranked opposition in eight of their first nine matches. “We want chances to see where we’re at, and that’s what we’ve been able to do so far, both with wins and some tough losses.”

 

“We’ve definitely thrown this group into the deep end of the pool pretty early on,” noted 16-year FSU head coach Jennifer Hyde, “and it’s reaped some pretty significant rewards early on.”

 

Just one week ago, on Feb. 21, the Seminoles nearly knocked off the No. 1 team in the country, North Carolina. But despite letting a 3-2 lead go to waste in the home match, Hyde has her 11-2 team ready to learn from the result and move forward.

 

“On to the next,” she said of her team’s mentality. “The important thing is we know where we need to be better and where we maybe missed some opportunities... The girls know that in order to have those things go our way, we’ve got to be better.”

 

With FSU’s Tallahassee campus roughly four hours away from the National Campus, the program has a significant local fan base that will make themselves heard on Sunday.

 

But Ohio State is hoping for a big turnout themselves.

 

“We’re excited to see how many Buckeye fans can come out,” said red-shirt senior Danielle Wolf, sister of former Buckeye and current ATP No. 163 JJ Wolf. Former OSU All-American Kristy Dascoli is expected to be in attendance, along with her husband, B.J. Munroe—a pair of Ohio State legends, according to Wolf.

 

The big-match atmosphere in the stands figures to be boosted by a tight contest on the courts.

 

“There are going to be a lot of tough matches. We're going to be expecting to be out there for five hours,” previewed Wolf, a strategic communications major, who plans to test the waters of professional tennis after graduation. “We’re ready for it; we’re really excited. A lot of teams think we can’t play outside, and actually a lot of the girls like it outside better, even though we don’t get to play outside [at home]. 

 

“It’s going to be really tough; we’re going to see who wants it more. And I think that’s something at Ohio State we really pride ourselves on—how much we want it and our desire to win, just doing it for the person on the court next to us.”

 

It will be Ohio State’s first College MatchDay experience since a 2017 loss to Florida, while FSU returns for the first time since 2018, when they defeated the Gators. 

 

“Everyone’s excited. It’s fun to go to the National Campus, and everyone knows how amazing that is,” said OSU’s Schaub. “It’s just the whole environment [of College MatchDay]... It’s what college tennis should be.”

 

“There’s definitely the bells and whistles and some of the pomp and circumstance of the event that make it special,” added FSU’s Hyde, “and we’re certainly going to let that wash all over us and enjoy it. It’s why you come to Florida State. It’s why you play in the big leagues—to be a part of those moments.”