In addition to its record 17th-consecutive Big Ten regular season championship captured this season, the Ohio State men’s tennis team picked up its 15th Big Ten Tournament Title Sunday.
The No. 3 Buckeyes swept their way to victory in Bloomington, Ind., beating No. 7 Michigan 4-0 to take the tournament crown.
“It feels amazing. We haven’t won this tournament since my redshirt freshman year,” Ohio State redshirt senior Andrew Lutschaunig said after the victory. “Not a lot of things we can do with the Buckeyes where it’s the first time in a few years. So this one is very special.”
Ohio State engaged in a battle with Michigan for the doubles point, narrowly winning it 2-1. JJ Tracy and Cannon Kingsley won their matchup 6-3 to open proceedings, but a 6-4 win by Michigan’s Andrew Fenty and Gavin Young — the No. 7 doubles tandem in the country — over OSU’s No. 27 Robert Cash and Justin Boulais knotted things up.
That left a battle for the doubles point between OSU’s No. 10-ranked duo of James Trotter and Lutschaunig against U-M’s Nino Ehrenschneider and Patrick Maloney. A match that went to tiebreak, but one Ohio State scraped out 7-6 (9-7).
Singles points were much easier to come by. No. 31 Trotter smoked No. 59 Young 6-4, 6-2 and Cash cruised by Jacob Bickersteth 6-1, 6-4. With a tight 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 win from No. 38 Boulais over No. 16 Fenty that is sure to improve his singles standing, the tournament was signed, sealed and delivered to Columbus.
OSU closed out Big Ten play with a perfect 9-0 record. It opens the NCAA Tournament at home as the No. 3 overall seed and No. 1 seed in its region, taking on 16th-seeded East Tennessee State.
Men’s Volleyball Season Comes To A Close
A 12-game winning streak carried Ohio State’s men’s volleyball team to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament, but its run came to an end there.
The Buckeyes fell to Penn State in Fairfax, Va. by a 3-1 final. All but one of the four sets in the match were decided by three points or less.
Penn State took the opening set 25-22 before Ohio State won a dogged battle in the second 26-24, but from there the Nittany Lions picked up an easy 25-13 win in set three and dusted off a Final Four berth with a 26-24 win in set four.
It was an accomplished season for the OSU volleyball team, however. The Buckeyes won the MIVA Conference Tournament despite entering as the No. 3 seed, and extended their above-mentioned winning streak to 12 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament with a 3-0 victory over King.
Ohio State’s overall record for the season ended at 23-10.
Key Transfer Portal Pickup For Women’s Hockey
Fresh off a National Championship in 2022 and national runner-up finish in 2023, the Ohio State women’s hockey team is doing anything but staying stagnant after losing some of its top contributors from those two squads.
Monday the team and head coach Nadine Muzerall announced the addition of former Penn State forward Kiara Zanon, OSU’s fifth signee of the spring.
Zanon was one of the most decorated players available in the portal for women’s hockey. She won two CHA Player of the Year awards while at Penn State, recognized as the best player in her conference two different seasons, and this past year finished as a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier, given annually to the nation’s best collegiate women’s hockey player.
She led the Nittany Lions in points with 49 and goals with 26, the latter number being the fifth-most in the country. Zanon helped lead Penn State to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.
Zanon also holds quality international experience, making two Team USA U18 squads and landing a gold medal at the IIHF World Championships in 2020, scoring the game-winning goal in overtime of the gold medal match against Team Canada.
