Men’s Tennis Comes Back From First Loss
No. 1 Ohio State lost its first match of the season when it faced off against then-No. 12 Texas on March 10, falling 5-2, but the Buckeyes were able to bounce back on that same trip to Texas, beating No. 12 Texas A&M 6-1 on March 13 and following that up with a 4-0 win over Michigan on Sunday.
The Buckeyes opened against the Aggies by winning the doubles point in a battle. Justin Boulais and Andrew Lutschaunig lost the first match, but Cannon Kingsley and JJ Tracy were able to even the score before Robert Cash and Bryce Nakashima were able to force a tiebreaker and win it to take the point.
The Aggies also claimed the first singles win over Kingsley, but they weren’t able to take any more starting with Alexander Bernard keeping his undefeated record, beating Luke Casper 6-4 and 6-3. Cash followed with a win to put the Buckeyes up 3-1 and Jack Anthrop clinched the team win by beating Giulio Perego 7-6 and 7-5. Boulais and Tracy both finished their matches and both won in three sets to add points to the win.
Ohio State had the upper hand in the sweep which started with the duos of Cash and Tracy along with Lutschaunig and Boulais securing the doubles point quickly. Anthrop secured the first singles point with a fast 6-1, 6-2 win over Nicholas Steiglehner before Nakashima and Boulais finished the match with wins.
The match against Michigan officially counted as non-conference play and improved the Buckeyes record to 18-1. Big Ten matches begin March 22 when Northwestern comes to Columbus for Ohio State’s next action at 6 p.m. Two days later Illinois will be at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center for a match at noon.
Women’s Lacrosse Passes Five Wins
Last season the Ohio State women’s lacrosse team finished with a 5-12 record and with a 22-17 win over Marquette on March 12, it improved to a 6-3 record in the 2024 season under first-year head coach Amanda Moore. The 22 goals in the game is tied for sixth-most in program history and was the most since they scored the same number against Detroit Mercy in 2016 according to the team website.
Annie Hargraves, Jamie Lasda, Brynn Ammerman and Leah Sax scored four goals each in the game while Zoe Coleman had a hat trick and two assists for five points on the day. Regan Alexander was in net and had 14 saves to make it her fourth straight game in the double digits.
They followed that up with a loss to Maryland to make them 0-2 in the Big Ten. Lasda and Sax led the team in goals again with two each in the 12-6 loss, and Coleman had two points of her own with a goal and an assist. Alexander had 11 saves to extend her streak, but still gave up 12 goals.
Ohio State’s next game is another conference opponent on March 23 against Johns Hopkins. When the team heads to Baltimore to face off against the Blue Jays, it will be looking for its first conference win since April 8, 2022, when it beat Michigan 9-7.
Baseball Takes Two Of Three From West Virginia
In its last road series before its home opener, Ohio State baseball had a strong showing against West Virginia with two wins in a three-game weekend series.
The Buckeyes dropped game one 5-2 with southpaw Landon Beidelschies on the bump. He went 6 1/3 innings and gave up six hits and three earned runs, showing his swing-and-miss stuff with 12 punchouts and just one walk in the game. Blaine Wynk came in for the final 1 2/3 innings of the game, giving up one hit and two runs. Henry Kaczmar had three hits and an RBI in the game.
Game two was a bounce back for the Buckeyes when Hank Thomas came in to pinch hit in the sixth inning and sent a two-run home run to right center to take a 5-4 lead, which they wouldn’t give up. They scored two more runs in the game and took a 7-4 win. Colin Purcell got the start and went 4 1/3 innings and gave up three runs before handing the ball off to Gavin DeVooght, who went 1 1/3 innings and got the win. Zach Brown held the Mountaineers to no ruins for 2 2/3 innings and Justin Eckhardt got the save with a clean ninth inning.
The final game featured an offensive onslaught for both teams, but more so for the Buckeyes in a 26-11 win with 17 hits for the team which led to five different innings of them putting up a crooked number on the scoreboard, topping out at eight runs in the sixth inning. Kaczmar extended his hitting streak to 17 games in the win.
Gavin Bruni threw 4 1/3 innings to start the game, giving up four runs on six hits, three walks and a hit batter. Chase Herrell came in for two innings and got the win, giving up two runs. Andrew Edrington, Jacob Morin, Zak Sigman, Jake Michalak and Logan Jones each took the ball in the blowout win, Michalak giving up four runs and Jones one.
The Buckeyes will play their first home series from March 22-24 against Georgetown at Bill Davis Stadium.
