After beating No. 8 Columbia on Thursday, top-ranked Ohio State matched up against No. 4 TCU and was upset 4-2, ending its run at the program’s first NCAA title.
It was the second time the two teams matched up this season, after the Buckeyes got the better of the Horned Frogs in February to win the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
Ohio State started the day by earning the doubles point with the duo of Andrew Lutschaunig and Justin Boulais along with Cannon Kingsley and Jack Anthrop both winning their matches 6-3 and 7-6 (7-4), respectively.
After that, the match flipped into the favor of TCU. No. 13 Jack Pinnington took on No. 34 Boulais in singles and beat him in two sets to tie the match up 1-1.
Alexander Bernard also lost his singles match in two sets to No. 77 Sebastian Grozny. It was Bernard’s first singles loss of the entire season since he had been undefeated up to that point.
No. 17 Kingsley was able to make it three sets, but he also lost his match to No. 7 Jake Fearnley of the Horned Frogs 5-7, 7-5, 2-6.
One Buckeye was able to get a win in singles when Anthrop took down Nio. 78 Lui Maxted in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. After Anthrop’s win, the Buckeyes trailed 3-2 and needed both of No. 19 JJ Tracy and Robert Cash to win their singles match to advance to the championship.
But Cash dropped his match. He started off very well, beating Tomas Jirousek in the first set 6-1, but the next set was a different story, when he lost 6-2. The third set was much close, but Cash couldn’t pull it out and he lost 7-5, ending the match with a 4-2 win for TCU.
Ohio State has been one of the better teams in the country for a long time now, but will still be searching for its first NCAA title going into next season.
