Michigan State and Ohio State Advance to Big Ten Men’s Tennis Tournament Final

Michigan State and Ohio State will face off in the Big Ten Men’s Tennis Tournament championship match on Saturday in Ojai, California, after both teams won their respective semifinal matches on Friday.

The No. 25-ranked Michigan State Spartans and the No. 3-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes advanced to the final after securing victories in the semifinals. Ohio State defeated the No. 3-seeded University of Illinois Fighting Illini by a score of 4-3 in a closely contested match that went to a deciding fifth court.

Ohio State began the match strong by capturing the doubles point, winning a 7-5 victory on court two from Alexander Bernard and Alex Okonkwo, followed by a tiebreaker win, 7-6(8), on court three from Aidan Kim and Bryce Nakashima to take an early 1-0 lead.

Illinois responded by winning the first two singles matches to take a 2-1 lead, with Gabriel Debru defeating Aidan Kim in two sets and Kenta Miyoshi downing Jack Anthrop in two sets. Ohio State tied the match at 2-2 when Nikita Filin won on court four with a 6-3, 6-4 victory, marking his 15th consecutive singles win. Preston Stearns followed with a two-set win over William Mroz, 7-5, 6-2, for his fifth straight singles victory.

Illinois tied the match at 3-3 when Alexander Bernard lost a tiebreaker in the first set and fell 6-4 in the second set. This set up a winner-take-all singles match on court five between Bryce Nakashima of Ohio State and Zachary Viiala of Illinois.

Nakashima dropped the first set 1-6 but rallied to win the next two sets 6-3, 6-3 to clinch the match for Ohio State and secure their place in the championship game.

With the win, Ohio State improved to a 15-match winning streak after defeating Nebraska in back-to-back quarterfinal matches and then overcoming Illinois in the semifinals. The Buckeyes’ only loss in Big Ten regular season play came against Michigan State by a 4-3 score on March 15.

That earlier meeting between the teams ended Ohio State’s 49-match conference win streak, marked the Buckeyes’ first conference home loss since 2003, and gave Michigan State its first win in the series since 1999. Michigan State and Ohio State shared the Big Ten regular season title with identical 12-1 conference records, with Michigan State earning the tournament’s No. 1 seed via the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Ohio State, seeded No. 2, is seeking its 18th Big Ten Tournament title and has won 17 all-time, including 14 of the last 19 championships since 2006. The Buckeyes are making their 22nd consecutive appearance in the tournament final.

Michigan State, seeded No. 1, is aiming for its first Big Ten Tournament championship since 1967 and would claim just its third title in program history with a victory.

The championship match is scheduled for 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET) on Saturday at Libbey Park in Ojai, California, and will be broadcast live on B1G+. The winner will receive the Big Ten’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.