Ohio State
Michigan
OSU Tops No. 16 Michigan 4-1, Improves to 3-0 In B1G Play
3/26/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 26, 2017
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. – For the 23rd-straight time Ohio State has knocked-off rival Michigan, this time a 4-1 victory in Ann Arbor on Sunday afternoon. The No. 3-ranked Buckeyes improve to 3-0 in Big Ten play while snapping No. 16 Michigan’s six-match home win-streak.
“It was a hard-fought win today and I’m proud of the guys,” said Director of Tennis Ty Tucker. “We kept fighting after facing some adversity over the past couple of weeks, losing a couple of matches we thought we could have won. So to be able to close out a quality team in a tough environment was nice to see.”
Ohio State set the tone for the match by taking a closely contested doubles point. The No. 10 duo of Mikael Torpegaard and Herkko Pollanen went up a break in the middle of the set and would hold the edge to win 6-4 over Alex Knight and Runhao Hua on court two. OSU freshman JJ Wolf and redshirt freshman Hunter Tubert fell by the same score to Myles Schalet and Kevin Wong on court three to leave the point to be decided on court 1.
Hugo Di Feo and Martin Joyce, playing just their second match at the No. 1 spot this season, fell behind 3-0 early to Jathan Malik and Gabe Tishman. But the Buckeyes rallied to win the next four games to take a 4-3 lead. Michigan responded with a break of its own to get back on serve at 4-4 but once again, Joyce and Di Feo had the answer, winning a crucial no-ad point to retake a 5-4 lead. They would then hold from 30-40 with two more great points to clinch the doubles point 6-4.
Di Feo kept his momentum rolling in his singles match with Schalet, besting him 6-1, 6-3 for his 19th victory of the season. Knight then put the Wolverines on the board with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Wolf on court three.
Redshirt freshman Kyle Seelig was playing in the No. 4 spot for the second straight match and just like Friday night, he would come up with a big victory. Seelig and Hua went back and forth in the opening set that would eventually go to a tie-breaker. Seelig blew past Hua 7-0 in the breaker to take the set. He then followed that with a 6-1 win in the second to put the third Buckeye point on the board.
The clinching point looked to come from any of the remaining three Buckeyes on the court. In the end, Pollanen would be the first to get the job done, defeating Carter Lin 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Torpegaard rallied from dropping the first set to Malik to win the second in a tiebreak and was leading 5-3 in the third. Joyce split the first two sets with Wong and was up 5-2 in their third set.
In addition to this being the 23rd-straight win over Michigan, it was the Buckeyes’ 17th-straight win over Big Ten opponents. OSU swept every opponent during the regular season last year and then won all three matches en route to the Big Ten Tournament title. This season, the Buckeyes have defeated Penn State, Michigan state and now Michigan.
Ohio State remains on the road next weekend when it heads to the Midwest to face Iowa on Friday evening and Nebraska on Sunday afternoon.
#3 Ohio State 4, #16 Michigan 1
Singles
1. #1 Mikael Torpegaard (OSU) vs. #91 Jathan Malik (UM) 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 5-3, unfinished
2. #4 Hugo Di Feo (OSU) def. #74 Myles Schalet (UM) 6-1, 6-3
3. Alex Knight (UM) def. #98 JJ Wolf (OSU) 6-3, 7-5
4. Kyle Seelig (OSU) def. Runhao Hua (UM) 7-6 (7-0), 6-1
5. #93 Herkko Pollanen (OSU) def. Carter Lin (UM) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
6. Martin Joyce (OSU) vs. #109 Kevin Wong (UM) 6-2, 4-6, 5-2, unfinished
Doubles
1. #56 Hugo Di Feo/Martin Joyce (OSU) def. Jathan Malik/Gabe Tishman (UM) 6-4
2. #10 Mikael Torpegaard/Herkko Pollanen (OSU) def. #66 Alex Knight/Runhao Hua (UM) 6-4
3. Myles Schalet/Kevin Wong (UM) def. JJ Wolf/Hunter Tubert (OSU) 6-4
Match Notes:
Michigan 12-4 (2-1); National ranking #16
Ohio State 18-3 (3-0); National ranking #3
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (2,3,4,5)
