Junior Mikael Torpegaard defeated Minnesota’s Matic Spec, 6-4, 6-4 in a match on April 14. Credit: Courtesy of OSU Athletics
The Ohio State men’s tennis team dropped four singles matches in straight sets, losing to Virginia 4-2.
A rain delay halted three matches late, and the No. 3 Buckeyes (33-4) were unable to keep their momentum rolling after the delay, dropping one last singles match and falling to the No. 2 Cavaliers (33-1).
The match began with the Buckeyes earning the doubles point by taking two out of three matches, including a narrow 7-6 (6-3) victory for junior Mikael Torpegaard and senior Herkko Pollanen over UVA freshman Carl Soderlund and senior Luca Corinteli.
The Buckeyes fell behind early in the score with Pollanen, freshman J.J. Wolf and sophomore Martin Joyce all going down in straight sets.
Needing wins from Torpegaard, senior Hugo Di Feo and redshirt freshman Kyle Seelig, the Buckeyes were on the brink of elimination. But Seelig won a break on deuce to stay alive and tie his second set at five games a piece. Di Feo won his second set to force a third set and Torpegaard was headed towards a 6-6 tiebreaker in his third set.
With Seelig seeking a break point in his second set down 30-40 in his second set (trailing in games 5-6) and Torpegaard seeking one more point to win his tiebreaker, the match was halted due to rain. When the matches resumed, Torpegaard was able to edge out his opponent and win his match, but Seelig lost the final point of the second set and fell 7-5 to lose his match.
Prior to their match against the Cavaliers, the Buckeyes had lost just six points in their run to the NCAA semifinals, including 4-0 sweeps of Butler and Louisville in the first two rounds of the tournament.
The Buckeyes end the season as both Big Ten regular season and tournament champions, and went an undefeated 11-0 in conference play.
