Ohio State men’s and women’s tennis took down opponents in the Sweet 16 at the Auer Tennis Complex and will each move on to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.
After beating No. 14 Illinois twice earlier in the season, men’s tennis once again earned a victory over the Fighting Illini on May 8. After the doubles pair of Alexander Bernard and Alex Okonkwo won the first doubles match with a 6-2 victory, Brandon Carpico and Nikita Filin went into a tiebreaker set against Gabriel Debru and Kenta Miyoshi of Illinois. The Buckeyes won four points straight to start the tiebreaker and defeated Illinois 7-4 to clinch the doubles point.
In singles competition, the Buckeyes took the first set on five of six courts. Singles players Jack Anthrop, Bernard and Filin won their matches, with Anthrop winning sets 6-4 and 6-3 to clinch.
Ohio State men’s tennis is back in the quarterfinals for the 18th time since 2004. They face the No. 6 TCU on May 14.
On May 9, the women’s tennis team beat No. 14 Vanderbilt 4-1. The Buckeyes took the doubles point with victories from Audrey Spencer/Sophia Cisse-Ignatiev 6-1 and Luciana Perry/Flora Johnson 6-3.
In singles, Nao Nishino and Cisse-Ignatiev won in straight sets to get the Buckeyes up 2-0. Perry clinched the Buckeyes’ win with a three-set victory in the final singles match.
The victory gave Ohio State women’s tennis its third appearance in the NCAA quarterfinal round, doing so in 2016 and 2017. Their next match date against No. 11 Pepperdine is to be determined.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State tennis teams dominate Sweet 16, advance to quarterfinals
Reporting by Dan Aulbach, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
