Cash and Tracy Headed to NCAA Doubles Final
5/24/2024 6:11:00 PM | Men's Tennis
STILLWATER, Okla. – For the third consecutive season, an Ohio State doubles team will play for an NCAA doubles title as seniors Robert Cash and JJ Tracy have advanced to the finals in Stillwater.
The Buckeye duo rolled through their first three matches of the tournament but were pushed to a super-tiebreaker in the semifinals on Friday. Cash and Tracy won the opening set 6-2 but the Louisville duo of Natan Rodrigues and Etienne Donnet rallied to win the second set 6-4. The match tiebreaker was tremendous back and forth battle.
The Cardinals raced out to a 4-1 lead before Cash and Tracy pushed back to win five consecutive points and take a 6-4 lead. Louisville got back on serve at 6-6 and took a 9-7 lead and had the serve in hand. But back-to-back misses at the net by the Cardinals evened the score at 9-9. Another miss play at the net gave the Buckeyes an 11-10 lead and Cash had a big serve to win the match and send the Buckeyes to the final 12-10.
They will meet the Florida State team of Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc and Joshua Dous Karpenschif in Saturday’s championship match.
Last season, Andrew Lutschaunig and James Trotter won the doubles title while Cash and Matej Vocel finished runner-up in a super-breaker in 2022.
Cash and Tracy had a dominant start to the tournament. They beat SMU’s Huntley Allen and Adam Neff 6-4, 6-2 in Tuesday’s opening round and then rolled Auburn’s duo of Raul Dobai and Finn Murgett 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesday.
In Thursday’s quarterfinals, they took the opening set 6-3 from Arkansas’ Bozo Barun and Jared Horwood and then easily won the second set 6-1.
In the singles tournament, four Buckeyes competed with Tracy and Jack Anthrop both reaching the quarterfinals. That was just the second time in program history that two Buckeyes reached the quarterfinals, matching Justin Kronauge and Steven Moneke in 2008. Ohio State was also the only school with multiple quarterfinalists this year.
Tracy had his deepest run in the NCAA Singles Championship, reaching the quarterfinals. He opened with a 6-4, 7-5 win over a fresh JC Roddick on Monday morning. On Tuesday, he took down No. 10 Alex Martinez 6-4, 7-6(6) to reach the round of 16 and earned All-America honors.
He then dominated Tennessee’s Shunsuke Mitsui 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday to notch his 40th singles win of the season. On Thursday, he took the opening set, 6-2, from Columbia’s Michael Zheng but then lost a tough second set 7-5 and his run ended with a 6-3 loss in the third.
Anthrop earned the first All-America honor of his career as he won three matches. He outlasted Cornell’s Radu Papoe in the opening round, beating him 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. His second-round win was a strong performance from start to finish, rolling past Oregon’s Quinn Vandecasteele 6-3, 6-1. In the third round, he faced Virginia’s Dylan Dietrich. Anthrop won the first set 7-5 and then battled into a second-set tiebreaker. He won the breaker 8-6 to advance to the quarterfinals. In Thursday’s quarterfinals, he ran into a hot Ozan Baris who would win the match 6-4, 6-1. Anthrop finished the year 41-6 as his 41 wins are tied for the fifth-most in program history.
Cannon Kingsley opened the tournament against Arizona’s Jay Friend. He lost the opening set 6-3 and then rebounded to win the next two sets 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the second round. He then took on Alabama’s Filip Planinsek on Tuesday. Planinsek won the first set in a tiebreaker and then used that momentum to take the second set 6-1. Kingsley was seeded in the singles draw and earned the fourth All-America honor of his career.
Justin Boulais made it 4-for-4 in the opening round for the Buckeyes as he beat Vanderbilt’s Danil Panarin 7-5, 6-2 on a hot Monday afternoon. However, he would fall in the second round to Stanford’s Nishesh Basavareddy 6-1, 7-5.
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