For the second time in less than a week, Ohio State's Mikael Torpegaard and Martin Joyce came up just short of winning an NCAA tennis title.
Six days after the Buckeyes fell to Wake Forest in the national championship match for the team title, Torpegaard and Joyce lost to UCLA's Martin Redlicki and Evan Zhu in a third-set tiebreaker on Monday.
Martin Redlicki and Evan Zhu (UCLA) are your 2018 Mens Doubles Champions after defeating Martin Joyce and Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio State), 6-7 (8), 7-6 (4), 11-9!#NCAATennis pic.twitter.com/fzDSQ8gcwQ
— NCAA Tennis (@NCAATennis) May 28, 2018
Monday's match was closely contested from beginning to end, with each of the first two sets also going to tiebreakers. Ohio State won the first set, 7-6, and took 5-4 and 6-5 leads in the second set that gave Torpegaard and Joyce multiple chances to win the match. UCLA ultimately earned the 7-6 win in the second set, however, to force a decisive 10-point tiebreaker.
With Joyce serving, the Buckeyes had another chance to win the match in the super breaker, up 9-8 after breaking Redlicki's serve twice. From there, however, UCLA won three straight points to win the tiebreaker, 11-9, and the match.
Monday's match was the final match of the illustrious Ohio State career of Torpegaard, a two-time Big Ten Player of the Year and six-time All-American. Joyce, a junior, should return as one of the leaders of Ohio State's 2018-19 team.
