Men's Tennis advances to OAC Tournament finals with 4-0 victory over John Carroll

LIMA — The Ohio Northern men's tennis team advanced to the finals of the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament with a 4-0 victory over John Carroll indoors on Tuesday afternoon.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (11-8 Overall); John Carroll (3-11).
• Venues: Westwood Tennis Center — Lima, Ohio.

Individual Highlights

• ONU grabbed two of the three the doubles courts to win the doubles point, then swept all six singles courts to record the victory.
• sophomore Kosuke Asada (Findlay) and freshman Noah Boyce (Oakwood) each won twice to lead the Polar Bears.
• Asada won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 6 singles and combined with sophomore Kessler Hackenberger (Tipp City/Tippecanoe) to win 6-2 at No. 3 doubles.
• Boyce clinched the match with a 6-2, 6-2 victory at No. 4 singles and combined with junior T.J. Schultz (Grand Blanc, Mich.) to win 6-1 No. 2 doubles.
• Sophomore Tyler Wood (Toledo/St. John's) won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3 singles.
• Northern won the first set in the three unfinished singles matches.

Notables

• The Polar Bears are the No. 1 seed in the tournament and the Blue Streaks are the No. 4 seed.
• Northern has won 13 OAC Tournament titles, including nine since the league began its current format in 2002.
• ONU is 9-6 in its previous OAC Tournament finals matches.
• The Polar Bears lead the series with John Carroll by a 33-14 margin and is 11-2 against the Blue Streaks in OAC Tournament competition.
• The NCAA had adopted a 7-point team scoring system for Division III, where the three doubles contests only count for one team point as is used in NCAA Divisions I and II.
• In tournament play, the three doubles matches are played to completion, meaning as soon as one team wins two courts and the doubles point, the remaining match is not completed.
• The same is true in singles matches as soon a team wins the required four team points to clinch the match.
• Wood leads the team with a 20-7 singles record and Boyce is right behind at 19-9.
• Boyce has a team-high 15 doubles wins.
• Boyce has team-best 34-21 overall record, with Wood right behind at 33-21 
• Senior Peyton Specht (Munster, Ind.) is 119-85 overall in his career, which includes a 55-46 singles mark and a 63-39 doubles record.
• His 119 victories put him No. 9 all-time in ONU history and his 63 doubles wins ranks 10th all-time at ONU.
• Senior Sam Sran (Punjab, India/St. Stephens and Gian Jyoti Global) is 51-41 in singles, 28-37 in doubles and is 79-78 overall.
• Third-year head coach Sean Swisher is 43-22 at the helm of the ONU men's tennis team, a winning percentage of .662.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action Saturday at Noon in the finals of the OAC Tournament at Wooster.