Men's Tennis advance to final round of 2011 OAC Tournament after 5-1 win over B-W

By Monique Bowman

MASON — The Ohio Northern men's tennis team took one step closer to its second tournament title Friday afternoon following a 5-1 win over No. 4-seeded Baldwin-Wallace in the semifinal round of the 2011 OAC Men's Tennis Tournament at Linder Family Tennis Courts.

The top-seeded Polar Bears move to 16-3 overall while the Yellow Jackets finish their season at 21-5. ONU will face No. 2-seed John Carroll tomorrow (Saturday) at 10 a.m.

ONU picked up two doubles wins to start the day. Junior Michael Kathary (Columbus/Dublin Scioto) and freshman Do Thai (Columbus/Bishop Ready) defeated B-W's Alex Trzeciak and Brad Minrovic at No. 2 doubles, 8-6.

Senior Jeff Carter (Wilmington) and junior Andrew Korba (Streetsboro/Solon) followed up with an 8-3 win at No. 3 doubles over Alex Kearney and Taylor Long.

Baldwin-Wallace's lone point of the afternoon came at No. 1 doubles when Joe Horvath and Matt Lachman picked up an 8-2 win over Nick Kowalczyk (Columbus/Worthington) and Joey Frank (Gahanna/Columbus Academy).

The other three ONU points came from Carter's 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 6 singles over Minrovic and Kathary's 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 win at No. 2 singles over Horvath. Then, Kowalczyk chipped in with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Lachman at No. 4 singles.

Northern's next opponent, the Blue Streaks, posted a 5-1 win over No. 3-seeded Otterbein, Friday afternoon. The last time ONU met JCU was mid-March; the Polar Bears took home a 7-2 victory.