The Ohio State men's tennis team beat the Wolverines 4-1 in the Big Ten Tournament final to clinch a likely #1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The match was more dramatic than the points score would seem to suggest because the Wolverines have a tendency to come from behind in long duals. They threatened to do so in the first regular-season dual against OSU before the latter clinched, and they actually did it against Michigan State in their B1G semifinal.

Ohio State won the doubles point easily, and Jack Anthrop and Cannon Kingsley put the Buckeyes up 3-0 in dominating straight set victories. Then the drama began. Justin Boulais was one of the doubles winners, but lost a tough ranked vs ranked matchup versus Gavin Young. JJ Tracy had his first set won and was up 4-0 in the second, but lost six of the next seven games before rallying to win the tiebreak and clinch the dual. Alexander Bernard and Robert Cash might have stepped in while Tracy was struggling, but their matches started late. They were trailing in their second sets (after having won the first sets) when the dual ended.

Next up is the Selection show Monday, from which Ohio State is expected to emerge as the #1 overall seed.

UPDATE: It is indeed the overall #1 seed. OSU meets Cleveland State in the first round and the winner between Vandetbilt and Oklahoma State in the second. OSU has home court through three of the six rounds as long as it wins.

NCAA Team Tournament play, which consists of six rounds over three weekends, begins on May 3.