Ohio State sophomore JJ Tracy pumps his fist in celebration during his singles match against Tennessee junior Angel Diaz at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center Feb. 4. Ohio State won 4-0. Credit: Casey Smith | Assistant Lantern TV Sports Producer
No. 3 Ohio State took a 4-0 victory against No. 27 Notre Dame Sunday, sporting a fresh lineup ahead of a rest period.
Ohio State’s match in South Bend, Indiana, was the Buckeyes’ (13-1) first regular-season road match since Jan. 22 and marked the beginning of a four-game road stretch. They showed out in the match, though, struggling early but notching several comebacks on the way to the sweep.
Doubles saw head coach Ty Tucker try out two new combinations, putting together the duos of graduate Matej Vocel with senior James Trotter and juniors Robert Cash with Justin Boulais. These changes followed a match Friday that saw No. 1 Cash and Vocel upset by Central Florida’s junior Lleyton Cronje and freshman Cooper White.
Both pairings took time to figure out their new dynamic, as Cash and Boulais trailed as late as 4-5 before turning it around and taking the court 7-5 against junior Matthew Che and senior Axel Nefve. Vocel and Trotter made their comeback a little earlier, falling behind 2-4 to junior Connor Fu and sophomore Jean-Marc Malkowski before taking the set 6-4.
No. 11 JJ Tracy led the way for Ohio State in singles, taking a dominant 6-2, 6-4 win against graduate Peter Conklin to put the team up 2-0.
Graduate Jake Van Emburgh continued an impressive stretch as a singles veteran for the Buckeyes that saw him knock off Che 6-3, 6-2.
The Buckeyes’ final point came from an unexpected place, as No. 10 junior Cannon Kingsley found himself losing his first set convincingly, falling 1-6 to Nefve. However, the lost set lit a fire under Kingsley.
Kingsley lost only five more games on the day, taking sets two and three 6-2 and 6-3, respectively. Despite going three sets, he was the third to finish and secured the win for Ohio State.
The Buckeyes will take two weeks off before heading south to take on Texas and Texas A&M March 12 and 15. The former match kicks off at 1 p.m. in Austin, Texas, and will be streamed on the Ohio State Buckeyes website.
