BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – [3] Fighting Illini men’s tennis fell to [1] Ohio State, 4-1, in the Big Ten Tournament at the Indiana Tennis Center on Saturday afternoon.
“Ohio State is a good team,” head coach Brad Dancer said. “It’s a very frustrating day for us when we match them on some courts but not all the way through. There are some inconsistencies we continue to show that shoot us in the foot and don’t give us the best chance to win as a team. If you aren’t playing as a team, then that means the coaches aren’t coaching the players well enough or they’re putting the wrong people out on the court.
“This team is running out of time to show that they are an elite team – they haven’t been able to demonstrate that. But I think the coaches believe that they can be an elite team. There are days left to figure out what we can do and how to get in the right mindset to go out and compete on every court.”
Doubles began with Gabrielius Guzauskas and Lucas Horve dropping their match, 6-2, to Cannon Kingsley and JJ Tracy.
The Buckeyes overpowered the Illini in doubles with both court one (No. 41 Karlis Ozolins and Hunter Heck) and court 2 (No. 65 Oliver Okonkwo and Mathis Debru) in tie breaks – court one eventually falling, 7-6 (6) to No. 27 Justin Boulais and Robert Cash.
Ozolins was the first singles loss for the Illini, losing 6-2, 6-4 No. 19 Kingsley. William Mroz then dropped his match, 6-3, 6-3, to No. 31 James Trotter.
True freshman Kenta Miyoshi took the sole point for Illinois with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 over Jack…
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