Eric Boggs
Thursday marked the longest match of Ohio State’s season, ending in a dramatic three-and-a-half-hour showdown in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The top-ranked Buckeyes were leading No. 8 Columbia, 3-2, but Columbia had the edge in two ongoing matches. These matches were happening on courts at opposite ends of the facility. Columbia’s singles players, Hugo Hashimoto on court 5 and Henry Ruger on court 6, had both won their first sets.
Both Hashimoto and Ruger claimed their first sets 7-5. However, Ohio State’s Alexander Bernard on court 5 and Robert Cash on court 6 fought back. They forced second-set tiebreakers and won them, 7-6 (7-5), keeping the Buckeyes in the game.
Then, their paths diverged. Cash was down 4-1 in the third set, but Bernard secured a decisive 6-1 third-set victory before Cash’s match finished. Bernard’s win over Hashimoto clinched the team match for Ohio State, sending them to the NCAA semifinals for the fourth year in a row and the eighth time in program history.
Ohio State has now won 18 straight matches this season and holds a 34-1 record.
Head coach Ty Tucker’s team got to a 3-2 lead thanks to singles victories from JJ Tracy and Cannon Kingsley, plus the doubles point they won from Columbia.
Kingsley and Jack Anthrop defeated Alex Kotzen and Ruger, 6-4. Columbia responded with a 6-4 win of their own, as Nicolas Kotzen and Max Westphal beat Ohio State’s Justin Boulais and Andrew Lutschaunig, ranked No. 49.
The doubles point was decided by Ohio State’s No. 3 duo in the country, Cash and Tracy, who won 6-4 against Columbia’s Theo Winegar and Michael Zheng.
With Thursday’s victory, the Buckeyes have advanced to the semifinals, where they will face No. 4 TCU on Saturday at 12 p.m. Ohio State previously defeated TCU 4-3 in the ITA Indoor Team National Championship in February.
