Ohio State
Minnesota
Buckeyes Win 8th-Straight, Beat Minnesota 4-0 – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/15/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 15, 2016
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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – For the eighth-straight match, the No. 3 ranked Ohio State men’s tennis team blanked a Big Ten opponent, winning at Minnesota on a sunny Friday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Ohio State is now 24-2 on the season and a perfect 8-0 in the conference with eight 4-0 sweeps.
Since the start of March, sophomores Matt Mendez and Hugo Di Feo have made up the Buckeyes No. 3 doubles team and the pair have yet to lose a match. They started the good vibes on Friday with a 6-1 victory over Jeremy Lynn and Justyn Levin. The duo of Ralf Steinbach and Herkko Pollanen were playing together for the first time this season and they too won 6-4 over Marino Alpeza and Ruben Weber.
Just like last Sunday, the bottom of the Buckeyes singles lineup carried their weight and would provide the three points needed for the sweep. Steinbach won for the 24th time this year, downing Alpeza 6-0, 6-4 at No. 4. Freshman Martin Joyce remains unbeaten in the No. 6 spot as he beat Lynn 6-2, 6-1 and Pollanen took down Levin 6-3, 6-2 at No. 5.
At the top of the lineup, Mikael Torpegaard dropped just his second set in his last 13 singles matches when he fell 6-3 in the first set to reigning Big Ten Athlete of the Week Matic Spec. But he bounced back and was leading 5-4 in the second set when the match was clinched.
Diaz was also on his way to victory at No. 2 as he won the first set over Weber in a tie-break and then was up 3-2 in the second. Di Feo and Felix Corwin each claimed a 6-4 set victory in their match and they were battling in the third when the match was ended.
The Buckeyes will conclude their five-match road trip and will play their final regular season road match of the year this Sunday at No. 47 Wisconsin. The match is set to begin at 1 p.m. ET.
Singles competition
1. Matic Spec (MINN) vs. #2 Mikael Torpegaard (OSU) 6-3, 4-5, unfinished
2. Ruben Weber (MINN) vs. #87 Chris Diaz (OSU) 6-7 (4), 2-3, unfinished
3. Felix Corwin (MINN) vs. #36 Hugo Di Feo (OSU) 4-6, 6-4, 1-0, unfinished
4. Ralf Steinbach (OSU) def. Marino Alpeza (MINN) 6-0, 6-4
5. #92 Herkko Pollanen (OSU) def. Justyn Levin (MINN) 6-3, 6-2
6. Martin Joyce (OSU) def. Jeremy Lynn (MINN) 6-2, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. #28 Felix Corwin/Matic Spec (MINN) vs. #78 Mikael Torpegaard/Martin Joyce (OSU) no result
2. Ralf Steinbach/Herkko Pollanen (OSU) def. Marino Alpeza/Ruben Weber (MINN) 6-4
3. Matt Mendez/Hugo Di Feo (OSU) def. Jeremy Lynn/Justyn Levin (MINN) 6-1
Order of Finish: Doubles (3,2) Singles (4,6,5)
