Men's Tennis repeats as OAC Tournament Champions following 5-0 win over John Carroll

By Monique Bowman

MASON -- For the second consecutive year, the Ohio Northern men's tennis team swept the Ohio Athletic Conference Rregular Season and Tournament titles following a 5-0 win over John Carroll in the finals of the 2011 OAC Men's Tennis Tournament, Saturday afternoon at Lindner Family Tennis Center.

The Polar Bears, the tournament's No. 1 seed, are 17-3 and with the conference's automatic bid will now wait for their seeding for the NCAA Division III Regional Tournament.

The No. 2 seeded Blue Steaks end their season at 13-7.

"We played great in this weekend's tournament; we faced two tough battles in Baldwin-Wallace and John Carroll and came out on top," said head coach Bob Rohan. "Doubles [against JCU] went right down to the wire but we pulled it out and kept that momentum through singles play. I'm really proud of how our guys played."

ONU started the day by sweeping doubles play, all by scores of 8-4. 

At No. 1 doubles, junior Nick Kowalczyk (Columbus/Worthington Kilbourne) and sophomore Joey Frank (Gahanna/Columbus Academy) move to 16-5 overall after today's win (13-3 at the doubles spot), while the No. 2 doubles paring of freshman Do Thai (Columbus/Bishop Ready) and junior Michael Kathary (Columbus/Dublin Scioto) moves to 18-3 overall and 14-2 at second doubles.

Senior Jeff Carter (Wilmington) and junior Andrew Korba (Streetsboro/Solon) are 20-3 overall as a pair and 16-1 at No. 3 doubles.

In singles action, Thai got a 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 3 singles over John Carroll's Chad Ruehs, followed by Kathary's 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 2 singles over JCU's Ryan Mullaney.

Team selections for the national championships will be announced May 9.