Ohio State men’s tennis will play for a national championship on Sunday.
The third-seeded Buckeyes advanced to the NCAA final by upsetting No. 2 seed TCU and doing so in dominant fashion, sweeping the Horned Frogs 4-0 in Saturday’s national semifinals in Orlando, Florida.
Ohio State will face No. 5 seed Virginia, which took down No. 1 seed Texas in Saturday’s other semifinal, in Sunday’s national championship match. The final is scheduled to start at noon and will be live-streamed on NCAA.com.
After dropping the doubles point in its quarterfinal win over Georgia, Ohio State got off to a stronger start on Saturday as the Buckeyes doubles teams of Robert Cash and Justin Boulais and Andrew Lutschaunig and James Trotter each won their matches to put the first point on the board for the scarlet and gray.
A double-fault to end a thrilling doubles point!!
— Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioStateMTEN) May 20, 2023
Buckeyes up 1-0 #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/C5YTyidboH
The Buckeyes trailed early in five of six first sets in singles, but Boulais and Alexander Bernard rallied back to win their first sets along with Jack Anthrop, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win over TCU’s Lui Maxted to put the second point on the board for Ohio State. Boulais gave the Buckeyes a 3-0 lead by securing a 6-3, 6-4 win over TCU’s Jake Fearnley.
Justin Boulais with a huge win on court 1!!
— Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioStateMTEN) May 20, 2023
He wins 6-3, 6-4 and Buckeyes lead 3-0
One more. pic.twitter.com/ZU2THrrlyz
Before TCU could win any singles matches, Bernard finished off a sweep for the Buckeyes with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Sebastian Gorzny that punched Ohio State’s ticket to the national championship match.
The freshman does it again!! Buckeyes headed to the championship match!! pic.twitter.com/2vHfKjRm0F
— Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioStateMTEN) May 20, 2023
Ohio State now has a 34-2 record on the season and has won its last 19 straight matches. If the Buckeyes can extend that streak to 20 on Sunday, they would win the first NCAA championship in program history.
Ohio State has already beaten Virginia twice this season, defeating the Cavaliers 4-1 on their home court in February and 4-0 just eight days later at the ITA Indoor Nationals. That said, the Cavaliers are the defending NCAA champions and have won their last 21 consecutive matches dating back to their second loss to the Buckeyes.
The Buckeyes are now 3-3 all-time in NCAA semifinal matches. They are 0-2 in their two previous NCAA final appearances, falling to USC in 2009 and Wake Forest in 2018.
