At the outset of the men’s tennis season, the goal of every team is to make it to the big dance: a chance to play for the NCAA national championship.
For the No. 26 Ohio State Buckeyes (19-8, 10-3 Big Ten), that chance has arrived.
The Buckeyes will head to the University of Tennessee this weekend for the first round of the 64 team men’s tennis tournament.
Standing in the way of OSU in the first round is the No. 33 defending Ivy League champion Brown Bears (23-5, 7-0 Ivy League).
The berth into the tournament marks the sixth-consecutive bid for the Buckeyes, who advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament last season. Brown is making its third appearance in the past four seasons.
“They (Brown) have won 11 matches in the past two months, and they beat Harvard, which is always a top 25 program,” OSU coach Ty Tucker said.
Brown is led by seniors co-captians Adil Shamasdin, an All-Ivy League first-team selection, and Nicholas Goldberg.
Shamasdin, 24-9 heading into the tournament, played No. 1 singles most of the season for the Bears. He posted a 10-4 record at No.1 and went 8-2 at the No. 2 spot.
Goldberg has battled injuries throughout the season, but has produced an overall mark of 22-8. At No. 2 singles, Golderg was 7-4 on the season and went 4-2 (1-1 Ivy Leauge) when bumped up to No. 1 singles.
“They have (two) seniors in the top six, so we know they won’t want this to be their last match,” Tucker said. “Two of their seniors (Shamasdin and Goldberg) play No. 1 and 2 singles and are strong players.”
In doubles action, Shamasdin and Goldberg earned a second-team Ivy League nod for the Bears, going 15-7 overall, including a 7-5 dual match record at No. 1 doubles. The team posted a 3-2 record at No. 1 doubles in league play.
OSU is coming off a second-place showing in the Big Ten tournament, losing the championship match to Illinois 4-2 on May 1st.
“We have improved and progressed over the past month and we like our chances, because we know what to expect in the NCAA tournament,” Tucker said.
In the match against the Illini, the Buckeyes lost the first set in four of the six singles matches. That is something OSU junior Dennis Mertens said the team needs to correct.
“(Winning the first set) gave (Illinois) the momentum going into the other sets,” he said, “and put most of our guys in a hole that was hard to come out of.”
Mertens said that the Buckeyes are going to need to win first sets and use the momentum in order to beat Brown.
The match against Illinois proved to be a good indicator of where the Buckeyes needed to improve, said sophomore Chris Klingemann.
“Illinois was a good team and test to see where we were at heading into the tournament,” he said. “And hopefully we can take that and improve heading into Brown.”
Buckeye sophomore Devin Mullings, who was recently named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s player to watch in the Midwest region, will lead the way in singles for OSU.
Mullings, an unanimous All-Big Ten selection, is 27-10 overall in singles this season and is ranked No. 40 in the ITA Division I singles poll. Mullings is 19-7 in 2005 duals with an 8-6 mark at the No. 1 spot and a 7-1 record at No. 2.
OSU will be looking toward their strong doubles play, led by their No. 5 ranked junior pair of Scott Green and Ross Wilson, that enters the tournament with a 27-6 mark.
“We’ve got to win the doubles point and we have to play competitive tennis,” Tucker said. “No one is going to roll over for us and, if we’re to lose, we would have to go home and sit for eight months. No one here wants to do that.”
