The Ohio State men’s tennis team expects to win a national championship this weekend, and it has good reason to believe it can.
Over the last two weekends, Ohio State has played four straight top-10 opponents and defeated all of them. In fact, Ohio State did not even surrender a single point against any of them, beating Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky 4-0 before sweeping Wake Forest 7-0 in the only one of those four matches that was played to completion.
For the season as a whole, Ohio State has surrendered just one point in nine matches, with the only blemish coming in a 6-1 win over Xavier. Otherwise, the Buckeyes have swept every opponent they’ve faced to start the season with a 9-0 record. In recognition of their dominant play so far, Ohio State is ranked as the No. 1 team in the country and is the No. 1 seed in this weekend’s ITA Indoor Nationals, which begin Friday in Seattle, Washington.
The Buckeyes aren’t exactly surprised by their success. They always thought they were capable of being one of the best teams in college tennis this year. But they know that what they have accomplished over the last couple of weeks is rare.
“It’s been a little bit surreal,” said junior Cannon Kingsley. “We expected to have a good start. Expected to have a top-five team, top-10 team. To sweep all those teams though is kind of unheard of and I think it shows how we’ve been practicing and preparing for these matches.”
Those sweeps are indicative of Ohio State’s depth, as every player in the Buckeyes’ singles lineup – which for the last three matches has consisted of Kingsley, Matej Vocel, Jake Van Emburgh, JJ Tracy, James Trotter and Robert Cash – has proven capable of putting points on the board for the Buckeyes, with Kingsley suffering the lone individual loss since team play began in January. The Buckeyes have also won the doubles point in all nine of their matches, which head coach Ty Tucker says is the most important key to winning consistently.
Because everyone in the lineup has been winning, the Buckeyes say they’ve been able to play loose and confidently, knowing their teammates are capable of stepping up if they have an off day. And because many matches are only played until one team scores four points to clinch the victory (unless the coaches agree to play to completion before the match), they’ve had incentive to try to win their individual matches as quickly as possible.
“We’re almost racing at this point to finish matches,” Kingsley said. “We’re winning 4-0, guys are trying to get ranked wins and it’s kind of fun just going out there and playing loose and knowing that we have a lot of depth and we have teammates that can get it done also.”
Tucker says his team this year “is probably as tight-knit of a team as we’ve had,” which he believes has also played a big part in their red-hot start.
“I think we all came together as a team and we’re playing for each other,” Tracy said. “Playing as a family, a brotherhood, I think that’s a big part of it. Everybody’s bought into the program, everybody’s confident and fighting hard for their team. That’s clicking right now.”
On paper, Tucker always felt like he had a team that could contend for national championships this year. Before the winter season even started, Ohio State had five singles players ranked in the top 100 nationally – everyone in the current lineup except Van Emburgh – as well as the No. 1 (Cash and Vocel) and No. 2 (Trotter and Justin Boulais) doubles teams in the country.
“I knew we were pretty good,” Tucker said. “Until you win, you don’t know what’s gonna happen. But on paper, we sure looked good.”
Now, they’ve proven they can do it on the court against some of the nation’s other top teams, which has the Buckeyes expecting to bring back a trophy from Seattle.
“Anything less than winning, I think, is a disappointment at this point,” Kingsley said. “So we’re going in there and we’re trying to win, for sure.”
Bags packed for Seattle: Heres what were bringing
— Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioStateMTEN) February 16, 2022
See you at the @ITA_Tennis Championships #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/THRdnyGiZt
Still, that could be easier said than done. While their four straight top-10 sweeps all came at home, where the Buckeyes have lost just two team matches since 2003, the crowd will be against them in their opening match in Seattle, where they’ll play Washington on the Huskies’ home court at 9:30 p.m. Friday.
“All of a sudden we’ll go from playing in front of 500-600 people to playing against 500-600 people,” Tucker said. “So the guys will have to be smart.”
To win the indoor national championship – a title they previously won in 2019 and 2014 – the Buckeyes will need to win four straight matches on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so they know they need to perform at their best over the next four days.
“We have to go in there and be loud and fired up for the first point, because we’re not gonna have the 500 home fans that we did the last two weeks, so we’re gonna have to make sure we’re still playing for each other and everybody’s extra focused on firing it up,” Tracy said. “Everybody on the floor, everyone on the bench, just playing as a team.”
If they continue to play the way they’ve been playing, though, they’ll give themselves a great chance to win it all.
“It would be awesome to win,” Tracy said. “We’re just gonna go out there, fight as hard as we can, play every point as hard as we can. If we get the win, that’s the dream, that’s an amazing feeling. But we’re just gonna play as hard as we can.”
The 2022 ITA Division I Men's National Team Indoor Championship Draw is now set
— ITA (@ITA_Tennis) February 15, 2022
: https://t.co/8iv7rI1FmI#WeAreCollegeTennis | #ITAIndoors pic.twitter.com/QXaqoJ84pD
If Ohio State defeats Washington on Friday, it will play either Wake Forest or Georgia in the quarterfinals at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. If the Buckeyes advance to the semifinals, they’ll play either Florida, TCU, Virginia or Texas at 3 p.m. Sunday. The championship final will be played at 3 p.m. Monday. Live video and stats for every match will be available on the ITA’s official website.
