The Ohio State men’s tennis program’s dominant run under head coach Ty Tucker continued on Sunday. The Buckeyes had already secured a Big Ten regular season championship with an undefeated conference run, and it doubled down with a 4-1 victory over Michigan on Sunday to win the program’s 15th total.
It was the third victory over the Wolverines this season thanks to an early season matchup in a nonconference tournament, the regular season victory, and the Big Ten Tournament championship tussle.
It wasn’t as easy as most matches, but the Buckeyes got the doubles point to start things off in Bloomington, Indiana. Cannon Kingsley and JJ Tracy started things off with a 6-3 win on court three, but that was followed by Michigan’s 6-4 win on court one to even things up 1-1. It took a tiebreaker for Andrew Lutschaunig and James Trotter on court two. Michigan served for the match at 6-4 in the tiebreak, but the OSU duo came back and rallied for the victory in a 9-7 thriller.
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The singles didn’t have nearly the drama.
James Trotter won easily in two sets, 6-4, 6-2, and that was followed by Robert Cash easily disposing of Michigan’s Jacob Bickersteth 6-1, 6-4. With the Buckeyes up 2-0 in the singles and inching ever closer to the tournament title, Justin Boulais beat Andrew Fenty after falling to him twice already earlier this year. He took care of business by winning set one in a tiebreaker and set two, 6-4, in the second to clinch the title.
Tucker has amazingly been a part of all 15 Big Ten tournament titles for the Buckeyes. He was on the team as a player for the first one in 1991 and has been coaching through the last 14. It has been one of the most dominant runs of any Big Ten program of any sport and has no signs of slowing down.
A third win this season over THAT team makes today even sweeter đ #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/crOpZ2Tpqi
— Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioStateMTEN) April 30, 2023
Ohio State will now turn its attention to where it heads for the nationals. It has been ever so close to winning an outdoor title, but that’s been the one thing missing through the period of success under Tucker. The selection show will take place on Monday evening, with OSU likely hosting the first and second rounds.
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