| Men’s Tennis |
|---|
| Ohio St. — 4 |
| UCLA — 0 |
Momentum slipped away quickly for the Bruins — and against the nation’s top-ranked team, there was little room to recover.
No. 22 UCLA men’s tennis (12-5, 6-2 Big Ten) was swept 4-0 by No. 1 Ohio State (20-3, 7-1 Big Ten) on Friday afternoon at the Los Angeles Tennis Center, as the Buckeyes seized control early and carried it through to the finish.
The tone of the match was set in doubles.
Ohio State secured the opening point with wins on courts three and two. The duo of sophomore Rudy Quan and freshman Bengt Reinhard fell 6-2 on court three, before junior Andy Nguyen and senior Aadarsh Tripathi were edged 6-4 on court two to clinch the doubles point. The top-court pairing of No. 32 junior Spencer Johnson and redshirt junior Emon van Loben Sels led 5-4 before their match was abandoned.
Trailing 1-0, UCLA faced an uphill climb heading into singles, one that only grew steeper.
Ohio State opened strong across the lineup, taking first sets on five courts and applying pressure throughout. On court one, No. 61 Johnson was overpowered by No. 11 Aidan Kim, who delivered a 6-3, 6-1 win to extend the Buckeyes’ lead.
Minutes later, the gap widened again.
Tripathi dropped his match on court five in straight sets, falling 6-2, 6-3 as Ohio State moved within one point of the sweep.
The clincher came on Court 6.
Redshirt freshman Cassius Chinlund pushed his match into a tight second-set tiebreak after dropping the opener 6-1, but Bryce Nakashima held firm in the breaker to secure a 7-6(6) second set and seal the overall victory for the Buckeyes.
Several other courts were left unfinished, though not without flashes of resistance from the Bruins. On court two, No. 90 Quan battled back to take the second set in a tiebreak after dropping the first, while on court three, No. 25 van Loben Sels claimed the opening set against No. 20 Jack Anthrop before the match turned unfinished in the third.
But the early deficit proved too much to overcome.
Facing the top-ranked team in the country, UCLA struggled to regain momentum after surrendering the doubles point and falling behind across multiple singles courts. Ohio State’s efficiency, particularly in straight-set wins on courts one, five and six, left little opportunity for a comeback.
The loss marks UCLA’s second conference defeat of the season and snaps the Bruins’ momentum entering April, as they continue Big Ten play against Penn State on April 4 in Los Angeles at 3:00 p.m. PST.
