No. 6 Buckeyes Welcome Three Teams for ITA Kickoff Weekend

No. 6 Ohio State Hosts ITA Kickoff Weekend
Dates:                       January 23-24, 2026
Time:                         10 a.m. & 1 p.m. January 23rd, 4 p.m. & 7 p.m. January 24^th
Venue:                      Ty Tucker Tennis Center – Columbus, Ohio
Live Scoring:         Sidearm
Live Video:             OhioStateBuckeyes.com
Rosters:                   Ohio State | North Alabama | Old Dominion | Purdue
Rankings:               ITA Rankings

COLUMBUS, Ohio – No. 6 Ohio State is set to host the ITA Kickoff Weekend Friday and Saturday inside the Ty Tucker Tennis Center. The Buckeyes will take on North Alabama at 10 a.m. Friday while Old Dominion and Purdue play at 1 p.m.

The winners of the Friday matches will play in the championship match at 4 p.m. Saturday with the consolation match set for 7 p.m. The winner of the weekend will earn a spot in next month's ITA Team Indoor National Championship in Texas hosted by Baylor and SMU.

Admission and parking are free for all men's tennis matches.

The Buckeyes are hosting the ITA Kickoff Weekend for the 17th time, and this is the 18th time in which they will be competing in the event.
Ohio State is 33-1 in the ITA Kickoff Weekend. The lone loss came to Virginia in the second round in 2021.
Last year, the Buckeyes swept both Louisville and Princeton 4-0 to earn a spot in the indoor national championship. They fell to No. 21 UCF 4-2 in the opening round.
Ohio State has never played North Alabama. The Lions suffered a 0-7 loss last week at Ole Miss to begin the season. The Buckeyes have only played Old Dominion one time back in 2017, they went on to sweep the Monarchs 4-0.
The Buckeyes have an 87-19 all-time record against Purdue, winning the past 28 matches with the most recent battle last year. The 4-2 win clinched an undefeated 2025 Big Ten record for Ohio State. Bryce Nakashima, Alexander Bernard and Jack Anthrop all collected singles wins against the Boilermakers.
The Buckeyes opened the year with a pair of 4-0 sweeps over in-state foes Toledo and Xavier last weekend. This was the 41st consecutive win against Toledo and the Buckeyes are now 23-0 all-time against Xavier.
Alex Okonkwo leads the team with a 3-0 record after winning both of his doubles matches and grabbing a third win in singles against Xavier.
Five Buckeyes were ranked in the preseason singles rankings. Aidan Kim leads the way at No. 5, followed by Anthrop at No. 22, Nikita Filin at No. 42, Okonkwo at No. 48 and Preston Stearns at No. 51.
Five Ohio State pairs were named in the preseason doubles rankings including three teams in the Top 10. Kim and Nakashima at No. 3, followed by Brandon Carpico and Filin at No. 5, Bernard and Okonkwo at No. 10, Anthrop and Loren Byers at No. 26 and Anthrop and Stearns at No. 32.
The Buckeyes remained at No. 6 in the January 21st ITA rankings.

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