Michigan
Ohio State
Michigan Falls to No. 3 Ohio State in Battle of Big Ten Powers
4/9/2023 5:22:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Varsity Tennis Center)
Score: #3 Ohio State 4, #4 Michigan 2
Records: U-M (18-3, 4-1 B1G), OSU (23-2, 6-0 B1G)
Next U-M Event: Saturday, April 15 -- at Indiana (Bloomington, Ind.), Noon
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- In a battle between the two unbeaten teams in the Big Ten, No. 3-ranked Ohio State defeated the University of Michigan men's tennis team 4-2 on Sunday (April 9) at the Varsity Tennis Center.
The No. 9-ranked doubles pair of Andrew Fenty and Gavin Young cruised to a 6-1 win at No. 1 over Robert Cash and Justin Boulais. Fenty and Young led 5-0 before dropping a game. Ondrej Styler and Jacob Bickersteth fell 6-2 to Cannon Kingsley and JJ Tracy. At No. 2, Patrick Maloney and Nino Ehrenschneider fell behind 3-1 and were not able to recover against No. 8 Andrew Lutschaunig and James Trotter in a 6-2 loss.
After falling behind 1-0, Andrew Fenty rallied from down a set to win at No. 1 singles, while Ondrej Styler had a marathon tiebreaker and won his match at No. 2.
OSU took the first two wins in singles to stretch the lead to 3-0 before Fenty and Styler made it a 3-2 match. The Buckeyes closed out the match by winning in three sets at No. 6.
The Buckeyes went ahead 2-0 as No. 21-ranked Tracy defeated No. 25 Patrick Maloney 6-3, 6-4 at No. 3. It marks just the second loss of the season for Maloney. Maloney fought to push his match to three sets with things tied at 4-4 in the second set, but Tracy claimed the last two games.
No. 28 Trotter took a 7-5, 6-2 win over No. 45 Young at No. 4 singles. They went back-and-forth in the first set, with neither leading by more than one until Trotter took the last two games. In the second set, Young knotted things at 2-2, but Trotter won the last four games to take the match.
Fenty won his seventh straight singles match to put Michigan on the board at No. 1. After dropping a 6-3 first set to No 48 Boulais, Fenty earned three break points in the second set to win 6-4. Tied at 3-3 in the third set, Fenty won two straight games to push ahead 5-3. After Boulais broke him 5-4, Fenty answered with his own break to win the match 6-4.
Styler played a marathon match at No. 2 and picked up the win, 7-6 (15), 6-4. The first match was impressive as each continued to trade points throughout a 32-point tiebreak with Styler clinching the win with the final two points. Knotted at 4-4 in the second set, Styler grabbed the last two games to take the 6-4 set and match.
Ohio State clinched the team match when Bickersteth came up short of Jack Anthrop in a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 setback, snapping his four-match win streak.
Ehrenschneider and Alexnader Bernard were knotted at 5-5 in the third set when the match was abandoned.
With four matches left in the regular season, Michigan hits the road to face Indiana in Bloomington on Saturday (April 15) at noon and Purdue on Sunday (April 16) at noon in West Lafayette, Ind., before closing out the regular season at the Varsity Tennis Center.
Following are match-by-match results
Singles
No. 1 – No. 15 Andrew Fenty (U-M) d. No. 48 Justin Boulais (OSU), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
No. 2 – No. 8 Ondrej Styler (U-M) d. Cannon Kingsley (OSU), 7-6 (15), 6-4
No. 3 – No. 21 JJ Tracy (OSU) d. No. 25 Patrick Maloney (U-M), 6-3, 6-4
No. 4 – No. 28 James Trotter (OSU) d. No. 45 Gavin Young (U-M), 7-5, 6-2
No. 5 – Nino Ehrenschneider (U-M) vs. No. 57 Alexander Bernard (OSU), 4-6, 6-4, 5-5 abandoned
No. 6 – Jack Anthrop (OSU) d. Jacob Bickersteth (U-M), 6-4, 4-6, 6-1
Doubles
No. 1 – No. 9 Andrew Fenty/Gavin Young (U-M) d. Robert Cash/Boulais (OSU), 6-1
No. 2 – No. 8 Andrew Lutschaunig/James Trotter (OSU) d. Patrick Maloney/Nino Ehrenschneider (U-M), 6-4
No. 3 – Cannon Kingsley/JJ Tracy (OSU) d. Ondrej Styler/Jacob Bickersteth (U-M), 6-2
Order of Completion: Doubles 1-3-2, Singles 3-4-1-2-6
Players Mentioned
