Ohio State beats Michigan 4-2 in NCAA men's tennis quarterfinals
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —Ohio State advanced to the NCAA men's tennis semifinals Thursday night with a 4-2 victory over Michigan.
Andrew Lutschaunig at No. 6 had the clinching victory with a 7-6, 6-4 victory over Nick Beaty. He won the tiebreaker 11-9, staving off three set points.
The fourth-seeded Buckeyes will play No. 8 Kentucky on Saturday. The Wildcats upset top-seeded TCU 4-3 in their quarterfinal match earlier Thursday.
Ohio State lost the doubles point but dominated in singles as it got payback for Michigan's 4-2 victory in the Big Ten Tournament championship.
Lightning and rain forced the match to switch to the University of Illinois' indoor courts just as the Buckeyes were asserting control.
"We got beat in that doubles point and then the guys got started," Ohio State coach Ty Tucker said. "We were running them out of the gym, and then all of a sudden we get a lightning strike, and we get put indoors. We didn't want to be indoors. We wanted to be outside."
Tucker faced another challenge after the move. The scoreboard indoors wasn't working, so it was almost impossible to know which court he should be at to dispense coaching advice.
"But our guys stood strong," Tucker said.
JJ Tracy defeated Andrew Fenty 6-2, 6-2 at No. 3 singles to even the match. Justin Boulais at No. 5 beat Nino Enrenschneider 6-2, 6-3 just before Cannon Kingsley closed out his 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ondrej Styler at No. 1.
In the Big Ten championship, Styler had rallied for a three-set victory over Kingsley.
Fifth-seeded Michigan got a singles victory at No. 4 when Jacob Bickersteth defeated Jake Van Emburgh 6-3, 6-3.
That left it up to Matej Vocel at No. 2 and Lutschaunig at No. 6, each of whom got an early service break in the third set. Lutschaunig held serve to seal his match, flinging his racket before being mobbed by his teammates.
"It's indescribable," Lutschaunig said.
Ohio State and Michigan had split two earlier matches this year before the Big Ten championship. But OSU got the victory on Thursday that mattered most.
"Obviously, they're our biggest rivals," Tracy said. "It was a huge revenge match for us. They did it to us on the Big Ten stage and we did it to them on the national stage. It's a great feeling."
Added Lutschaunig, "We have a lot of respect for that team. I think they have a really good culture, and they've done great things this year. But I just think we were a little more hungry than them today."
Ohio State played Kentucky at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center in February, winning 4-0.
Bill Rabinowitz covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Contact him at brabinowitz@dispatch.com or on Twitter @brdispatch.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State men's tennis: Buckeyes beat Michigan in NCAA quarterfinals
