Ohio State
ITA National Indoor Championships
Buchanan, Rola Pair Up to Advance to Semifinals of National Indoor Championships – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/4/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Nov. 4, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola, members of the Ohio State men’s tennis team, advanced to the doubles semifinals of the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships Friday at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. The Buckeye pair, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, defeated Henrique Cunha and Chris Mengel of Duke, 8-6, in the quarterfinals.
Buchanan and Rola will face California’s Nick Andrews and Christoffer Konigsfeldt, the fourth seed, at 9 a.m. Saturday. Andrews and Konigsfeldt defeated the impressive duo of Christian Hansen and Luis Loeffler of Valdosta State, who advanced to the quarterfinals on a bye and round two win over Texas’ Chris Camillone and David Holine.
The Buckeyes are the highest seeded tandem remaining in the event after Billy Federhofer and Nassim Slilam of Florida upset No. 1 seed Kevin King and Juan Spir of Georgia Tech Friday. Buchanan and Rola beat the Yellow Jacket pair earlier this fall in the D’Novo/ITA All-American Championships final to clinch the automatic berth to the prestigious indoor competition. Tulsa and No. 3 seed Clifford Marsland and Ashley Watling make up the fourth team to advance to the semifinals.
Individually, Buchanan (New Albany, Ohio) and Rola (Ptuj, Slovenia) were not as successful. In a rematch of the USTA/ITA Division I Men’s Midwest Regional Championships singles final in Columbus, Ohio, nearly three weeks ago, Michigan’s Evan King downed Rola 7-5, 7-5. Rola, the No. 3 seed in New York, won the previous matchup at the Ohio State University Varsity Indoor Tennis Center to capture the Midwest regional title 6-3, 6-4 Oct. 17.
After winning the first set 7-6 (6), Buchanan dropped the final two sets 6-2, 6-2 to host school Columbia’s Haig Schneiderman. Buchanan was an at-large selection.
