Ohio State's men's and women's tennis teams are on a roll.
No. 3 seeded Ohio State women's tennis opened its NCAA tournament campaign Saturday afternoon with a 4–0 thrashing of the Buffalo Bulls in Columbus. A little later in the day, the No. 3 men's tennis team throttled No. 42 Louisville, 4–0 to punch a ticket to the Sweet 16 in Athens, Georgia.
The women's day began with doubles partners Sandy Niehaus and Anna Sanford crushing their opponents 6-1 on court 2, before teammates Francesca Di Lorenzo and Miho Kowase sealed the doubles point for the Buckeyes with a 6-1 victory on court 1.
Niehaus' doubles win marks the 99th of her career, tying the Ohio State record set by Wendy Stewart from 1975-79.
Following the duos, the singles matches began with Di Lorenzo easily taking down her opponent in a straight-set (6-0, 6-0) victory and Niehaus winning her match 6-2, 6-1 to put the Scarlet and Gray up 3-0 over the Bulls for the afternoon.
Congrats to Sandy Niehaus, who notched career singles win No. 100 today! #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/XDzNAU8nAR
— Ohio State W Tennis (@OhioState_WTEN) May 13, 2017
Senior Gabriella De Santis clinched the win for the Buckeyes over Buffalo with a 6-2, 6-3 victory on court 3.
Ohio State will welcome the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Sunday afternoon here in Columbus with a shot at the Sweet 16 on the line.
Postmatch comments from @Coachschaubosu after the @NCAATennis win over Buffalo. https://t.co/UY1cfC3zPC #GoBucks
— Ohio State W Tennis (@OhioState_WTEN) May 13, 2017
The men's team improved to 31–3 on the year with the win over Louisville, finishing a perfect 18–0 at home in Columbus.
The Buckeyes and Cardinals battled in singles, while the Ohio State doubles teams did work, jumping out to quick leads in all three matches before rolling to wins on courts two and three.
Winners on the singles side for Ohio State were No. 9 Hugo Di Feo (6-3, 6-2), Martin Joyce (7-5, 6-2) and Herkko Pllanen (6-0, 6-2).
This marks the 12th-straight Sweet 16 trip for the Ohio State men's tennis program. The Buckeyes will face No. 14 Oklahoma on Thursday, May 18 at noon.
