Ohio State men’s tennis has come up short in its bid for an indoor national title.
After winning their first 11 consecutive matches of the year, surrendering just two total points in those 11 matches, the top-ranked Buckeyes suffered their first loss of the year as they were defeated 4-3 by TCU in the semifinals of ITA Indoor Nationals.
The Buckeyes, who defeated Washington 4-1 and Wake Forest 4-0 in the first two rounds of the tournament, went into the weekend favored to win the indoor national championship for the third time since 2014, but were outmatched by the Horned Frogs on Sunday afternoon.
After dropping the doubles point, Ohio State took a 3-1 lead with straight-sets wins by Cannon Kingsley, JJ Tracy and James Trotter. The Buckeyes ended up losing the match, however, after Matej Vocel, Robert Cash and finally James Van Emburgh – who took TCU’s Sander Jong to a decisive third set before coming up short – all suffered their first singles losses in team play this year.
Ohio State will now turn its attention toward trying to win an NCAA national championship during the outdoor season. While the Buckeyes have won two ITA indoor national titles, they’ve never won an NCAA title, losing in the finals of both the 2009 and 2018 NCAA tournaments.
