University of Tennessee Athletics
Ohio State Sneaks Past VCU 4-3 to Advance to Second Round of NCAA Tournament
5/12/2001
KNOXVILLE-- The No. 22 Ohio Sate Buckeyes barely got past No. 41 VCU Saturday in the first round of the NCAA tournament at UT's Varsity Tennis Complex. The match was tied three different times before OSU finally claimed the victory in a match that started outside, but was forced indoors due to rain. The Buckeye win sets up a clash with No. 6 Tennessee Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Rams began the match well, taking two of the three doubles matches to win the point from the buckeyes. Ohio State started strong, with Phil Metz and Chris Porter winning the No. 3 match 8-1. VCU's No. 7 pair of Frank Moser and Florian Marquardt then took the No. 1 match 8-4 over Jonathon Scale and Andrew Carlson. The Ram's tandem of Daniel Casquero and Mattias Hoglund then clinched the point with a hard-fought 9-8(4) victory over Bob Wellstein and Derek DeFalco in the No. 2 match.
In singles, the Buckeyes and Rams were tied in the match score at 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3, before Ohio State pulled out the victory. Ohio State struck first in the singles segment, with a win by No. 36 Phil Metz in the No. 1 match over VCU's No. 76 Frank Moser. VCU then came back with a win in the No. 2 match by No. 63 Florian Marquardt over Chris Porter. Ohio State's Adrian Bohane then downed Fernando Sanchez in an exciting three-set victory, which ended in a third-set tiebreak. Andrew Carlson then gave the Buckeyes their first lead of the afternoon, with a win in the No. 4 match over Daniel Casquero. VCU would come right back as Mats Norin made a third-set comeback to defeat Bob Wellstein in the No. 5 match. Ohio State's Vincent Ng clinched the match for the Buckeyes with a 6-3, 6-3 win in the No. 6 match over Mattias Hoglund.
"This was a really tough match," Ohio State head coach Ty Tucker said. "We barely lost the doubles point in a tiebreak, but we got it done in the end. We have 24 wins, so we are a pretty good team. I am looking forward to taking on Tennessee. Tennessee would be hard to beat anywhere you play them, but we get them in Knoxville so it will be really tough. Tennessee is a favorite to win the NCAA title, so if we are able to win tomorrow it will be show how good we have become as a team."
Sunday's match between the Vols and the Buckeye's will begin at 1 p.m. at the Varsity Tennis Center on the UT campus. Tickets are $5 at the gate. The Vols and Buckeyes have met six times, most recently in 1995, with Tennessee winning all six matchups.
