Ohio State falls to Virginia 4-0 in NCAA men's tennis championship match

An NCAA men’s tennis championship continues to elude Ohio State.

The Buckeyes lost to defending champion Virginia 4-0 Sunday in Orlando, Florida.

The clinching match came at No. 2 singles. Virginia’s Inaki Montes de la Torre defeated Cannon Kingsley 6-4, 6-2.

Ohio State has been a perennial national contender but has now lost for the third time in the championship match. OSU lost to Southern California in 2009 and to Wake Forest in 2018.

This looked like it might be the year the No. 3 Buckeyes finally got the only missing piece on coach Ty Tucker’s resume. Ohio State shut out No. 2 TCU in the semifinals Saturday while No. 5 Virginia beat No. 1 Texas.

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Ohio State defeated Virginia twice indoors in February, including at Charlottesville.

But Tucker said he was apprehensive about the matchup in the Florida sun. NCAA tournament rules don't allow him to move players up or down the lineup a spot, and he didn't particularly like the singles matchups.

"Before every math, everybody figures out their math to four (wins)," Tucker said. "I was struggling to find four last night and the longer I stayed up, the more I didn't find it."

That put a premium on winning the doubles point, always a priority for Tucker. It didn't happen. Tucker said OSU had seven chances to win games on deuce points and lost six of them. Cannon Kingsley and JJ Tracy won 6-3 at No. 3, but Andrew Lutschaunig and James Trotter fell 6-2 at No. 2, leaving the doubles point up to Robert Cash and Justin Boulais at No. 1.

Cash and Boulais trailed 5-3 but led 0-30 and 30-40 in Virginia’s service game before two big serves gave the Cavaliers the clinching game.

The singles matches lived up to Tucker's fears. He said he would have liked to have moved Cannon Kingsley from No. 2 to No. 1 and moved Justin Boulais down. Kingsley had an ankle injury earlier this year and is still rounding into shape. Tucker wanted to avoid a matchup with Virginia's No. 2 player, Inaki Montes de la Torre, who's an exceptional grinder and counter-puncher.

Boulais lost 6-4, 6-2 at No. 1 shortly after Tracy fell 6-2, 6-1 at No. 3 singles.

That left Ohio State with no margin for error. Kingsley lost the first set 6-4 to de la Torre and was broken twice in the second set to trail 5-2. De la Torre then served out the match to clinch Virginia's title.

"I didn't want Kingsley on Montez, but you can't avoid it," Tucker said. "That's not to say anything negative about Kingsley. He's our horse. He's our rock. He's a two-time All-American, a two-time Big Ten Player of the Year. He's our guy, but when you've seen as many matches as I've seen, you know where you feel good."

Alexander Bernard won his first set at No. 5 singles but dropped the second. Trotter, who finished the season undefeated in dual matches, won the second set at No. 4 after losing the first set. Jack Anthrop won the tie-breaker in a marathon first set at No. 6.

Alexander Bernard won his first set at No. 5 singles but dropped the second. Trotter won the second set at No. 4 after losing the first set, and Jack Anthrop won the tie-breaker in a long first set at No. 6.

Ohio State finished its season with a 34-3 record.

"I've got guys with tears in their eyes," Tucker said. "We're celebrating James Trotter, the only guy we're going to lose on this year's team, and we're going to try to get it back together. But I'm not disappointed. People don't know how hard it is to get here."

Clutching the runner-up trophy, Tucker added, "Obviously, you'd like the gold one. This one's silver. But what can you do? It's a long season. I'm not happy to take home a second-place trophy, but it's tough. You keep fighting and battling. You'd like to get the gold trophy, but it wasn't meant to be this year."

The NCAA men's and women's singles and doubles tournaments begin Monday. Boulais, Kingsley, Tracy, Trotter and Bernard will compete in the singles. The teams of Boulais/Cash and Trotter/Lutschaunig are in the doubles bracket, though Lutschaunig might play with Tracy instead.

OSU's Irina Cantos Siemers and Sydni Ratliff are in the women's singles draw.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State loses 4-0 to Virginia in NCAA men's tennis final