Ohio State men’s tennis seeks elusive NCAA title in Stillwater, Oklahoma

COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) — The Ohio State men’s tennis team stands just three wins away from the one piece of hardware missing from its trophy case.

The top-seeded Buckeyes are one of eight teams in Stillwater, Oklahoma this week hoping to bring home an NCAA championship after defeating Cleveland State, Oklahoma State , and Mississippi State in the tournament’s earlier rounds. OSU will face No. 8 Columbia in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

“We know everyone is good there. It’s Elite Eight for a reason. We’re going to take it one match at a time, try to do our best every day. Go on the court and just leave it all out there,” fifth-year senior Robert Cash said. “For a lot of us, it’s our last match for the Buckeyes. It just means everything for us.”

Cash is one of five seniors looking to capture the program’s first NCAA title. The Buckeyes have reached the final site of the NCAA tournament for 18 straight seasons dating back to 2006. OSU made the national championship match three times, including last season when the Buckeyes fell to Virginia.

“It would mean everything for everybody. For the coaching staff, the staff that supports us, all the Buckeyes that came before me, all the Buckeyes that’ll come after me, all the people that support Ohio State tennis. It’ll mean so much to everybody,” Cash said. “We’d just love to bring it home. That one’s been circled for so long for so many years. We’re just trying to do everything we can to make Buckeye nation proud.”

The Buckeyes are no stranger to success. The program won its third ITA National Indoor Championship earlier this season and could face some of the same teams again this week in Stillwater. Indoor runner-up TCU could face Ohio State again in the semifinals if the Horned Frogs defeat Kentucky. Defending champion Virginia sits on the other side of the bracket and could be a potential opponent for OSU in the finals.

“It’s been a massive goal for all of us from the beginning of the year. We all knew that we were going to have a strong year this year. We all have the goal of going all the way,” fifth-year senior Justin Boulais said.

Last year, the Buckeyes were swept by the Cavaliers in the final, prompting four of last year’s senior class to come back for a fifth year.

“I do think that this year, there’s that extra motivation because we did come so close to it last year and we have almost the exact same team,” Boulais said.

Head coach Ty Tucker has seen plenty of trophies in his time with Ohio State, including 18 Big Ten regular season titles and 16 Big Ten tournament titles. But the winningest head coach in conference history has yet to see an NCAA championship since taking over the program in 1999.

“It’s always a long road to get to the final site. We’re lucky to be here. There’s always a lot of great teams and a lot of teams that are sitting at home that would like to be here,” Tucker said. “There’s going to be no easy outs and every match is going to be tough.”

Tucker emphasized the importance of winning the doubles point in every match.

“Anytime you get a 1-0 lead, we’ve been tough to beat,” Tucker said. “Nothing’s going to be easy but looking forward to it.” “One set of doubles, no ad scoring. Anything can happen. It’s a crapshoot. It’s whatever side of the bed you wake up on sometimes.”

The Buckeyes’ quarterfinal against Columbia is set for noon Eastern on Thursday.

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