The Ohio State Men’s Tennis team keeps on being challenged with Top 10 opponents, and the Buckeyes keep coming up with the answers.
First it was against then-No. 1 Texas, then it was then-No. 1 USC. The Buckeyes followed that up with a win over No. 7 Texas A&M, and then they knocked off No. 6 Wake Forest in a gritty battle Saturday night.
Wake Forest beat Ohio State for the 2018 National Championship, and the Buckeyes were out for revenge. Ohio State got off to a good start by winning the doubles point, but the Demon Deacons got quick wins by Bar Botzer and Taha Baadi to take a 2-1 lead. After that, this turned into an incredible match.
The Buckeyes got an important come-from-behind third-set victory by Cannon Kingsley on Court 2. Kingsley keeps on taking down tough opponents, and this match was no different.
The Buckeyes and Demon Deacons split Courts 4 and 6 with runaway third sets in each (6-1 win by Ohio State’s Kyle Seelig and 6-3 by Wake Forest’s Sid Banthia). So it all came down to the final set between James Trotter and Eduardo Nava on Court 5.
Trotter earned a break for a 5-3 lead with a huge forehand pass, but he couldn’t serve out the match. He fought back from 0-30 while serving at 5-5, and then celebrated victory when a Nava forehand went long on the deuce point in the next game.
The Buckeyes will face North Carolina in the ITA National Indoor semifinals on Sunday afternoon. North Carolina, last season, upset then-No. 1 Ohio State in the NCAA quarterfinals. The Tar Heels are currently ranked No. 4, and the Buckeyes will be out for revenge in this battle.
The winner faces the winner of USC vs No. 13 Michigan in the Monday final. The ITA rankings haven’t updated in over a week because of the ITA National Indoors this week, so USC is still technically No. 1. That top spot will almost certainly change to Ohio State when the rankings do update, but it would be nice to cap off earning with with a second consecutive National Indoors title.
