Do not be surprised the next time a member of the Ohio State men’s tennis team frowns when they hear “Rocky Top.”
The No. 14 Tennessee Volunteers (16-8, 6-5 SEC) – who use the country tune as their fight song – cut short the No. 26 Buckeyes’ (20-9, 10-3 Big Ten) NCAA tournament run, handing them a 4-2 loss on Sunday.
“It was our match to win, but our guys didn’t take advantage of situations they could have,” coach Ty Tucker said. “They will be a little sad when they have to go through this week realizing they won’t be playing team tennis for a while.”
Even though the Buckeyes took an early exit from the tournament, Tucker said the team met his expectations, but coaches are always looking for more.
“In the beginning of the season I thought we would finish the season being ranked between 20th to 30th, so finishing around No. 25 is right there,” Tucker said. “We had a young team this season with three sophomores and a freshman playing singles, so I expected our team to get to the second round of the tournament.”
“But the goal of a coach is always to see his team overachieve, so if our guys had beaten Tennessee, we would have overachieved and that would of made for a pretty good season.”
OSU’s match with Tennessee started out ominously for the Buckeyes when they dropped the doubles point. Coming into the match, OSU was 19-3 on the season when they won the doubles point.
Tennessee’s second doubles squad of senior Mark Dietrich and freshman Morgan Wilson quickly dispatched the Buckeye sophomore duo of Chris Klingemann and Devin Mullings, 8-1. OSU tied up doubles, with freshman Drew Eberly and sophomore Joey Atas knocking off the Volunteer freshman pair of Bobby Cameron and Kaden Hensel, 8-6, in No. 3 doubles.
The crucial doubles point came down to the one spot, where the No. 5 junior pair of Scott Green and Ross Wilson forged a 7-7 tie with the No. 9 Volunteer sophomore duo of Ockie Oosthuizen and Ben Rogers.
“It was a pretty tight match and Scott and I had chances to convert on several chances and we couldn’t,” Wilson said. “We didn’t come through there and it gave Tennessee a big advantage, especially being on their home court and in front of their home fans.”
However, the Tennessee pair captured two of the three games and clinched the doubles point for the Vols by a score of 9-8 (9-7) for a 1-0 lead over OSU heading into singles.
“We should have won the doubles point, because any time you have 2 to 3 match points to potentially win the doubles point, you have to take advantage of that,” Tucker said.
Tennessee quickly went up 2-0 with Green losing his match on straight sets of 6-3, 6-3 to Wilson at No. 4 singles. No. 64 Atas notched the first Buckeye point on the day with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Oosthuizen at No. 3 singles to cut the Tennessee lead down to 2-1.
The Vols quickly regained the momentum with Eberly losing to Hensel at No. 6 singles on straight sets of 6-4. Tennessee proceeded to clinch match-point with No. 54 Dietrich upsetting No. 40 Mullings on sets of 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) in No. 1 singles.
“I should have made my opponent play harder,” Mullings said. “I didn’t do very well on my returns or first-serves and that gave (Dietrich) an advantage in our match.”
Wilson picked up the last point for the Buckeyes with a 7-5, 6-4 defeat of UT sophomore Kiril Tcherveniachki at No. 5 singles.
“It was hard coming off of that close loss in doubles, but I focused, stayed within myself and put together a couple of good sets,” Wilson said.
The Buckeyes advanced to play Tennessee with a 4-0 shutout of No. 40 Brown (23-6, 7-0 Ivy League) on Saturday.
OSU made quick work of Brown in doubles with Green and Wilson handing Brown’s senior pair of Nick Goldberg and Adil Shamasdin an 8-2 loss. Klingemann and Mullings clinched the point with a 8-5 win over the Bears’ pair of freshman Saurabh Kohli and sophomore Eric Thomas.
In singles competition, Mullings handed No. 86 Shamasdin a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 loss in a three-set marathon. Atas made quick work of Thomas on a two-set victory of 6-2, 6-3 with Wilson knocking off Brown junior Phillip Charm on sets of 7-5 and 6-2.
Even though the season has ended for the Buckeye squad, three OSU athletes will advance to compete at the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championship on May 25 at Texas A&M University.
The Buckeye duo of Green and Wilson will compete in doubles action, while Mullings will compete in singles play. Green and Wilson, who won a pair of ITA indoor championships last November, will try to complete the NCAA doubles trifecta by attempting to win the outdoor doubles national championship.
“We have done more than we ever expected to do this year,” Wilson said. “This tournament is the cake at the end of the season for us after winning the two national titles, and we are going to approach it like we did the other two in the fall and just relax and play our game.”
“If we can get on a roll and win the first few rounds like we did in the first two tournaments, that should help us as we advance into the tournament and build our confidence even more,” he said.
Mullings will be making his first appearance in the NCAA singles tournament and is ready to take his game to the top level of competition.
“I wish we could have advanced further into the tournament as a team, but I’m excited to be in the singles competition,” Mullings said. “Hopefully, I can play up to my abilities and stay relaxed, because that’s when I play my best tennis.”
