Ohio State
Northwestern
MTEN: 11-Straight! Buckeyes Beat Northwestern 4-0 for B1G Title – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/22/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 22, 2016
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 5 Ohio State men’s tennis team is used to life on top of the mountain and Friday night’s 4-0 sweep of No. 14 Northwestern cemented its place for another year. The win gave the Buckeyes a share of their 11th-straight Big Ten regular season title.
“You can’t win without great players and we’ve been fortunate enough to recruit great players who are great student-athletes and who want to win tennis matches,” said Ohio State Director of Tennis Ty Tucker. “Associate head coach Justin Kronauge has been here all 11 years and assistant coach David Schilling has been here 17 years so we’ve had great stability and that’s been a huge part of it. A lot of great players and coaches have been a part of this run.”
Ohio State has been on quite the run through the Big Ten this season, having not dropped a point so far in the first 10 matches. Tonight’s win was the 13-straight against Northwestern and it pushes the Buckeyes record to 26-2 on the year and 10-0 in the conference. Northwestern drops to 23-3 overall and 9-1 in the B1G play.
“The guys knew it was a big match tonight so we really didn’t have to talk too much about the Big Ten title,” said Tucker. “We’ve played a lot of big matches in the last 10 years here at Ohio State and by not really hyping the match up too much I think helped them stay loose and they came out and played well.”
Ohio State went back to its top doubles lineup on Friday night and it proved pivotal. The No. 31-ranked team of Ralf Steinbach and Martin Joyce joined forces for the first time since March 20 and they rolled to a 6-2 win over the No. 88 team of Sam Shropshire and Konrad Zieba.
Also pairing for the first since in over a month was Mikael Torpegaard and Herkko Pollanen and they too found success. The Buckeye duo would put the first point on the board with a 6-4 win over Strong Kirchheimer and Fedor Baev. Torpegaard and Pollanen are now 13-5 on the season while Steinbach and Joyce improve to 13-8 together.
In singles, Steinbach started the scoring with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Baev at No. 4. It was Steinbach’s team-leading 26th victory of the season and he is unbeaten in his last 11 matches.
Pollanen made it 3-0 Buckeyes as he downed Alp Horoz 6-4, 6-1 on court six. The clinching point then came from the No. 1 player in the country. Torpegaard, who earlier in the week was elevated to the top spot in the country, won a tightly contested first set 7-5 over No. 16 Konrad Zieba. The second set was on serve through the first eight games until Torpegaard broke at 5-4 and then served out the match on love.
The Buckeyes will have a chance to win the Big Ten title outright on Sunday when they close the regular season by hosting No. 15 Illinois. The match is scheduled to begin at Noon and will played outdoors at the Varsity Tennis Courts. Sunday will also be Senior Day for the Buckeyes as they will honor Chris Diaz and Ralf Steinbach following the match.
#5 Ohio State 4, #14 Northwestern 0
Singles competition
1. #1 Mikael Torpegaard (OSU) def. #16 Konrad Zieba (NU) 7-5, 6-4
2. #93 Chris Diaz (OSU) vs. #41 Sam Shropshire (NU) 6-2, 5-6, unfinished
3. #37 Hugo Di Feo (OSU) vs. #78 Strong Kirchheimer (NU) 2-6, 6-1, 3-2, unfinished
4. Ralf Steinbach (OSU) def. Fedor Baev (NU) 6-4, 6-3
5. Martin Joyce (OSU) vs. Ben Vandixhorn (NU) 6-2, 3-6, 2-2, unfinished
6. #90 Herkko Pollanen (OSU) def. Alp Horoz (NU) 6-4, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. #20 Mikael Torpegaard/Herkko Pollanen (OSU) def. Strong Kirchheimer/Fedor Baev (NU) 6-4
2. #31 Ralf Steinbach/Martin Joyce (OSU) def. #88 Sam Shropshire/Konrad Zieba (NU) 6-2
3. Hugo Di Feo/Matt Mendez (OSU) vs. Alp Horoz/Mihir Kumar (NU) 2-5, unfinished
Match Notes:
Northwestern 23-3 (9-1); National ranking #14
Ohio State 26-2 (10-0); National ranking #5
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (4,6,1)
Ohio State clinches a share of the Big Ten regular season title
Official: Marcus Lee T-2:11 A-463
