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Ohio State Men's Tennis (2014/2019/2024 ITA Indoor National Champs, 17 Straight B1G Titles)

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Recap of the victory over #27 LSU from the official site.

Link

The six-time defending Big Ten champion and No. 2 Ohio State men?s tennis team earned its fourth road victory of the season with a 6-1 win at No. 27 LSU Monday. The match was played outside at W.T. Dub Robinson Stadium.
The Buckeyes (19-1; 2-0 Big Ten) move to 11-1 vs. teams ranked in the ITA Top 30, with their only loss a 4-3 decision to No. 1 USC in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
Devin McCarthy, ranked 79th-nationally,defeated LSU?s Tom Knights 6-3, 6-2 at No. 5 singles to give the Buckeyes a 4-0 lead and the guaranteed victory vs. the Tigers. The Cincinnati, Ohio, native has now won three consecutive matches to improve to 17-6 overall, including a 9-2 mark at the No. 5 position.
With the win, Ohio State is 8-5 all-time vs. the Tigers (11-5), having won the previous seven meetings. All eight wins have occurred under head coach Ty Tucker.
The Buckeyes earned their 19th doubles point of the spring after 8-4 wins at both the No. 1 and No. 2 positions, respectively.
Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola, the nation?s top-ranked collegiate tandem, earned their 8-4 victory first on court one against LSU?s Neal Skupski and James Turbervill. It was their sixth-consecutive doubles triumph. Buchanan and Rola are 21-2 overall for the season, including a 12-2 mark at the No. 1 position.
McCarthyand Ille Van Engelen claimed the doubles point for the visiting Buckeyes after defeating the 51st-ranked duo of Olivier Borsos and Chris Simpson at No. 2 doubles. The 39th-ranked Buckeye pair improve to 8-3 on court two and 21-7 overall.
In others doubles action, the Scarlet and Gray duo of Peter Kobelt and Connor Smith earned its 16th win of the season (one loss) during the spring with a 9-7 victory at No. 3 doubles vs. Stefan Szacinski and Knights.

Buchanan, ranked No. 12 in the country, put the Buckeyes up 2-0 after a quick 6-2, 6-2 decision against No. 71 Borsos at No. 2 singles. The two-time defending Big Ten Athlete of the Week has now won four consecutive singles matches en route to a 15-5 overall record.
Van Engelen, ranked 107th, beat Turbervill 6-4, 6-0 on court four for his fifth-consecutive win and 18th of the season, while McCarthy would follow shortly with his straight-set victory.
In other singles competition, sixth-ranked Rola downed No. 85 Skupski 6-3, 6-4 at No. 1 singles to give the Ptuj, Slovenia, native his team-high 22nd singles win.
The final two singles contests came down to third-set tiebreakers. Smith, a Buckeye junior, fell to Szacinski 6-2, 5-7, 0-1 at No. 6 singles. It was only the Tampa, Fla., native?s second loss of the season. Kobelt won his tiebreaker at No. 3 singles vs. Simpson 7-6, 6-2, 1-0. The Buckeyes? 46th-ranked player improves to 14-8 overall after his fourth-consecutive singles victory.
Up next, Ohio State will travel to Athens for a 3 p.m. match Wednesday vs. the Georgia Bulldogs.
Click to expand...

The transition to outdoor conditions was not as violent as last year when the Bucks lost at Texas A&M on their southern spring swing.
The match upcoming vs. #3 UGa on Wednesday will be a stiff challenge.
Glad this one is in the books on the w side of the ledger.
Go Bucks.
:oh:
 
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In the ITA rankings released today tOSU remained solidly entrenched in the #2 position.

Link

Rank . . . Avg. . . . . School. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Previous
1. . . . . . .95.66. . . .University of Southern California . .1
2. . . . . . .83.75. . . .Ohio State University. . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. . . . . . .75.14. . . .University of Virginia. . . . . . . . . . . .5
4. . . . . . .73.86. . . .University of Georgia. . . . . . . . . . . .3
5. . . . . . .72.68. . . .UCLA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. . . . . . .71.32. . . .Duke University. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
7. . . . . . .63.43. . . .University of Kentucky. . . . . . . . . . 7
8. . . . . . .58.78. . . .Pepperdine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
9. . . . . . .56.75. . . .California. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
10. . . . . .56.12. . . .Stanford University. . . . . . . . . . . . .9
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Virginia is back in the #3 slot in the rankings, trying to hang on for the highly coveted #3 seed in the NCAA team tournament.
The OSU v. Georgia match tomorrow will be absolutely essential for UGa if the dawgs have any hopes of jumping UVa for #3.
 
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Speaking of UGa, they are generating a lot of emotion for the showdown in Athens Wednesday at 2:30 pm.
Buckeyes will probably be facing a loud and hostile environment.
The Georgia official tennis site has not only a livestats
feed for monitoring action,
but also a live video feed
for each of the 6 outdoor courts.
I am also planning to check out what looks to be a highly active live chat
where both Georgia fans and "visitors" can contribute conversation during the match.
Go Bucks!
 
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gracelhink;2129023; said:
Speaking of UGa, they are generating a lot of emotion for the showdown in Athens Wednesday at 2:30 pm.
Buckeyes will probably be facing a loud and hostile environment.
The Georgia official tennis site has not only a livestats
feed for monitoring action,
but also a live video feed
for each of the 6 outdoor courts.
I am also planning to check out what looks to be a highly active live chat
where both Georgia fans and "visitors" can contribute conversation during the match.
Go Bucks!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately work is killing me as I work toward a product launch so I won't be able to follow along. So the following is my contribution for tomorrow:

Go Buckeyes!!!
:oh:
 
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UGA took the matches at #2 (Buchanan) and #4 (Van Engelen) to tie the match at 2-2.

Devin McCarthy just finished with a win at #5. So the Buckeyes just need to win either match at #3 or #6.

At #3, Kobelt dropped the first set but won the second in a tiebreak.

At #6, Smith lost the first set in a tiebreak but won the second set 6-3. He's up 2-1 in the 3rd set, but I don't know if that's on serve or not. The Court 6 video isn't showing the score correctly - it lists UGA-Miss St without any set scores.
 
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Connor Smith is now up 4-2 in the 3rd set, so 2 more holds will clinch it for tOSU.

Kobelt is struggling to hold serve at 1-2. Doumbia seems to have trouble handling pace to his backhand, and Kobelt is trying to take advantage of that.
 
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After several dueces, and what looked like a line call that Kobelt didn't like, he got broken so he's down 1-3 in the final set.

Smith just got broken also, so he's tied at 4-4. This is about as tight as it can get.
 
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Smith got broken again, so UGA won that match at 6-4 in the third set.

It's 3-3 overall, and Kobelt is down 1-4 in in the last set. It looks like this one is slipping away. :(
 
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The UGA team ran onto the court and mobbed Doumbia when he closed out the match.

I'd say that home court was the difference in this one. Congrats to the Dawgs on a tough 4-3 win.
 
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Buckeyes dropped a tough road match in front of over 1000 Dog fans in Athens. A recap of the 4-3 win by Georgia as posted on the OSU official site.
Link

In a match between Top 5 teams, the six-time defending Big Ten champion and No. 2 Ohio State men?s tennis team (19-2; 2-0 Big Ten) lost 4-3 to fourth-ranked Georgia (14-1) Wednesday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. The match was loaded with talent, with four of the six doubles teams and all 10 players competing at Nos. 1-5 singles ranked in the latest ITA individual rankings.
After the Bulldogs evened the match at 3-3, all eyes were cast upon the No. 3 singles match between Ohio State?s Peter Kobelt, the 46th-ranked player nationally, and 20th-ranked Sadio Doumbia of Georgia. Doumbia won the first set 6-3 before Kobelt won a tiebreaker to claim the second set 7-6. With the match on the line, Doumbia played his best tennis of the evening, beating Kobelt 6-1 in the third stanza to earn the 4-3 win for the home Bulldogs.
The Buckeyes move to 11-2 vs. teams ranked in the ITA Top 30, including a 3-2 mark against teams in the Top 10. Ohio State?s only previous loss was a 4-3 decision to No. 1 USC in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. Prior to its win vs. the Buckeyes, Georgia?s lone defeat was a 4-1 setback, also at the hands of the Trojans.
Prior to the loss Wednesday, head coach Ty Tucker and the Buckeyes won three consecutive matches vs. Georgia.
The Scarlet and Gray earned their 20th doubles point out of 21 chances with victories on courts one and three vs. the Bulldogs.
Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola, the nation?s top-ranked collegiate tandem, won their 22nd doubles match of the year after an 8-3 triumph on court one vs. the nation?s 31st-ranked duo of Ignacio Taboada and Hernus Pieters. The Buckeye pair?s seventh-consecutive win give them a 9-1 record vs. ranked opponents.
Competing on court three for only the second time this season, Ille Van Engelen and Devin McCarthy, ranked 39th nationally, downed Georgia?s Wil Spencer and KU Singh 8-6 for their 22nd win as a team, claiming the doubles point for the visiting Buckeyes.

Peter Kobelt and Connor Smith fell at No. 2 doubles to No. 52 Doumbia and Nathan Pasha 9-7. It was only the second loss for the pair all season, snapping their four match win streak.
Rola extended Ohio State?s lead to 2-0 with his ninth-consecutive victory at No. 1 singles. Rola, ranked sixth nationally, beat eighth-ranked Spencer 6-3, 6-2 for his 23rd singles win, a team high. The sophomore is 5-0 on court one and 11-2 vs. ranked opponents.
Georgia split the Buckeye lead in half after Singh, ranked 50th-nationally, handed No. 12 Buchanan his first loss in five matches with a 7-5, 6-4 win at No. 2 singles. Toboada, ranked No. 29, evened the match with a 6-2, 7-6 win over Van Engelen at No. 4 singles.
The Bulldogs would tie the match once again at 3-3 after Pasha won in three sets 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, vs. Smith at No. 6 singles. The loss was only the third singles defeat for Smith all season. Doumbia?s three-set win at No. 3 singles against Kobelt soon followed to give Georgia the huge non-conference victory.
Up next, Ohio State will resume Big Ten action at noon, Sunday in Bloomington against the 21st-ranked Indiana Hoosiers. The Buckeyes will look to extend their conference win streak to 82 consecutive matches
Click to expand...

the official site recap omitted Devin McCarthy's win at #5 singles over Pieters of UGA in straight sets.
Here is Gracelhink thoughts;
Tough environment for the Buckeyes, but all in all not a terrible performance. Georgia has some experience winning close matches--now 4 in a row by a 4-3 score over high quality opponents.

He would have liked a w over the #4 ITA ranked team, but Coach Tucker no doubt saw some things that he will like.

1. Rola is playing lights out period. His performace against #8 in the NCAA Will Spencer was solid. His aggresive double's play with Chase Buchanan is why this tandem is the best in the NCAA!

2. Devin McCarthy is playing well! He has so much talent, generates so much pace with his forehand and is overcoming the inconisistencies that have plagued him in the past, he came through big in both doubles and singles today.

3. Connor Smith fought back valiantly from down a set to win the 2nd set at #6 and went up a break at 4-2 in the 3rd. A win would have clinched the match for the Bucks, but it looked like the wheels fell off and he dropped 4 straight games and his match. To his credit Georgia's #6 Pasha ought to be ranked, he is a solid player.

4. Peter Kobelt battled back from a 1st set loss to win his 2nd set but didn't have enough in the third against the #20 ranked player in the iTA.

5. Buckeyes gained some valuable experience at the site of the NCAA championships. The loss while tough to swallow could also make them hungry to return with greater passion, knowing they can beat this team.

I was somewhat surprised to see that Singh #50 ITA ranking, was able to handle Buchanan in straight sets. Singh transferred from Illinois to georgia this year. At Illinois, Singh was not so impressive, would not have given Buchanan much trouble. Chase has been playing consistently and well lately, and I was confident that a win over Singh was inevitable. Guess not.

It will be interesting to see what the UGa victory over the Buckeyes does for the ITA rankings next week--the points UGA receives should be enough to bump them up to #3 or even #2.
Long term thinking ahead to the NCAA championships, Buckeyes body of work will still be sufficient for a #2 or #3 ITA ranking and NCAA team tourney seed I hope. Virginia is lurking and will be playing against some better competition (more available computer point potential) in the ACC than Buckeyes in the B1G.
Still want Buckeyes to get that 2 or 3 seed, and we want to watch UVa and USC battle in the semis.
A tough B1G road match at #21 Indiana will be this weekend. Bloomington will not be as hostile as Athens but Buckeyes will need to remain sharp and focused to prevent the upstart Hoosiers from believing they can compete with the 6 time B1G champions.
Get some good rest Buckeyes, we at Buckeye Planet are proud of your efforts!
:oh:
 
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