Men's Tennis drops thrilling 5-4 decision at John Carroll in battle of league leaders

By Tim Glon

CLEVELAND — The Ohio Northern men's tennis team dropped a thrilling 5-4 decision at John Carroll in a battle of Ohio Athletic Conference leaders on Saturday afternoon indoors at Cleveland State's Medical Mutual Tennis Pavilion.

The Polar Bears fall to 12-8 overall and are 5-2 in the OAC, while the Blue Streaks improve to 7-9 and win the OAC regular season title with a 7-0 record.

Sophomore Hoang Do (Powell/Olentangy Liberty) and freshman Zach Beaschler (Ada) won 8-7(4) at No. 2 doubles for Ohio Northern as John Carroll led 2-1 after doubles play.

JCU then won at No. 3 and 5 singles to extend its lead to 4-1.

But the Polar Bears rallied to win the next three singles matches to tie the score at 4-4.

Junior Andrew Cochran (Wooster) won 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 at No. 6 singles, freshman Noah Elliott (Hilliard/Davidson) won 7-6(4), 6-4 at No. 2 singles and sophomore Vinh Thai (Galloway/Saint Charles) won 6-4, 6-2 at No. 1 singles to even the match.

Beaschler won the opening set at No. 4 singles 7-5, but fell in the second and third sets 6-3 as JCU held on for the win.

The Polar Bears will be the No. 3 seed in next week's OAC Tournament and will host No. 6 seed Marietta on Tuesday in the quarterfinals.