Ohio State fifth-year Justin Boulais returns a shot from Cleveland State freshman Lincoln Battle in his 6-2, 7-0 win. The Buckeyes would go on to sweep the Vikings 4-0 in the contest. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics
The 2024 NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament kicked off Friday as the first-seeded Buckeyes showed their poise and experience with a victory over Cleveland State in dominating fashion.
The Buckeyes (31-1, 9-0 Big Ten) defeated the Vikings (21-7, 8-0 Horizon League) 4-0 behind veteran leadership who reached the semifinals in last year’s NCAA tournament. Friday’s match saw wins from a pair of fifth-years Justin Boulais and Andrew Lutschaunig, as well as senior JJ Tracy and fifth-year Cannon Kingsley in doubles. Tracy, Boulais and fifth-year Robert Cash also all managed to earn wins in their singles matches.
“Obviously in college athletics, you’re trying to be old and you have a good chance [to win] because a lot of these guys were freshmen during Covid,” head coach Ty Tucker said. “We’ve played a lot of matches together, but so have many other teams, so you just have to come and compete.”
The doubles matches opened with Ohio State’s pair Boulais and Lutschaunig jumping on Cleveland State’s duo, sophomore Carl Gedlitschka and senior JuandeDios Abboud, going up 3-0 on court one.
For the Vikings, freshman Lincoln Battle and redshirt sophomore Devin Boyer kept Cleveland State in contention for the doubles point, earning a 4-2 lead on the Buckeyes’ duo of Cash and redshirt freshman Preston Stearns.
Boulais and Lutschaunig only gave up a single game and showed high intensity on their way to a 6-1 victory against Gedlitschka and Abboud.
“I think our chemistry was natural when we started playing with each other,” Boulais said. “We like playing with each other a lot and our play styles match up really well on the doubles court.”
Boyer and Battle’s work on court three would do little good for Cleveland State as Kingsley and Tracy neared victory while up 5-2 on Vikings freshman Nico Jamison and senior Kade Mindry.
A crushing serve from Kingsley gave he and Tracy the win on court two 6-2, clinching the crucial doubles point for the Buckeyes.
Tracy kept the ball rolling into the start of his singles match, earning a 4-0 lead against the Vikings’ Gedlitschka. He went on to win the set without dropping a game.
Ohio State’s Cash hopped out to an early lead in his singles match, winning his first set against Cleveland State’s Boyer 6-1. A court over, Kingsley saw a similar result in his matchup against Vikings senior Mikael Erler, with a 6-2 victory in his first set.
Early into the singles matches, no Buckeye dropped their first set against any Viking.
Cash was the first Buckeye to claim a win, earning a 6-1, 6-3 victory against the Viking’s Boyer.
Kingsley fell behind in the second set 4-0 before battling back to win three straight games, although his match would eventually be cut short due to a Buckeye victory.
“[Cannon] was the NCAA freshman of the year, Big Ten player of the year,” Tucker said. “You need to have the perfect attitude all the time. You can’t ever think that something’s going to be easy in the first round of the NCAA tournament.”
Tracy won his match shortly after, beating the Vikings’ Gedlitschka in commanding fashion 6-0, 6-2. Ohio State clinched its victory and 4-0 sweep with Boulais ending his match and the series with a shutout set and a 6-2, 7-0 win against Battle.
“We’ve been at Ohio State for a long time and gotten close a few times so hopefully this is the year,” Boulais said. “We started off pretty good with a good win today so we want to use that to keep the momentum up and go all the way this year.”
The Buckeyes advance to face Oklahoma State in the second round of the NCAA tournament 4 p.m. Saturday at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center.
