Tennis: Francesca Di Lorenzo and Miho Kowase Play For NCAA Doubles Championship Monday

By TJ Neer on May 28, 2017 at 9:39 pm
Sophomore Francesca Di Lorenzo and senior Miho Kowase high five after a doubles match.
Ohio State Athletics.
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Sophomore Francesca Di Lorenzo and senior Miho Kowase have certainly had impressive seasons individually

Di Lorenzo has been the No. 1 ranked singles player for much of the season, Kowase became the school's all-time singles wins leader — but their greatest success might be as a duo.

The two will compete for Ohio State women's tennis' first NCAA championship Monday after a straight-set win Sunday. The duo is the first to ever reach the championship match in school history.

"We want to just keep doing what we have been doing," the New Albany native Di Lorenzo said. "Whoever we play is going to be a really tough team, but we have to come out and play as well as we can. We need to come out aggressive and make sure we stick to our game plan."

The teammates will be facing off against Alabama's Maddie Pothoff and Erin Routliffe at 1 p.m. Monday, May 29. You can watch the match here when the time comes.

The two certainly have lots of momentum as they are 22-1 on the season and have won each of their last 18 completed matches. With their most recent doubles win over Cal's Maya Jansen and Maegan Manesse, Kowase was able to join teammate Sandy Niehaus as the only Buckeyes to win 100 singles and 100 doubles matches.

Additionally, Di Lorenzo and Kowase are only the second doubles team in school history to be named All-Americans. The other duo was Buckeye greats Kristy Dascoli and Monica Rincon, who made the NCAA tournament quarterfinals in 2001.

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