Season Review: Men's Tennis continues OAC dominance with OAC regular season and tournament titles

By: Andrew Korba

The Ohio Northern's men's tennis team posted its 29th consecutive winning season in 2012-13, finishing with a 19-5 record and a perfect 9-0 mark in OAC play. In addition, the Polar Bears won their sixth OAC regular season title in the last eight years and fifth OAC Tournament championship in the past seven seasons.

Senior Joey Frank capped off his brilliant career by becoming ONU's all-time doubles and overall wins leader on Apr. 30 against Wilmington. Frank has 152 career wins and 79 doubles victories. He was rewarded with his fourth First Team All-OAC selection.

Junior Do Thai also notched a First Team All-OAC honor, after posting an 18-2 record in singles play. Northern also had three other players earn All-OAC status. Junior Josh Saunders was named Second Team All-OAC and sophomore Blake Troller and freshman John Mostowy both garnered in Honorable Mention All-OAC accolades. In addition, sixth year head coach Bob Rohan was named OAC Coach of the Year for the third time in his career.

The Polar Bears kicked of the 2012-13 campaign in the fall season at the Wittenberg Invitational and the ITA Central Region Championships in Indianapolis (Ind.).

ONU opened its fall season at the tough Hope/Kalamazoo Shootout. Northern faced three top 10 regionally ranked opponents, dropping all three contests. The Polar Bears picked up their first win of the season, with a 9-0 victory over Wartburg (Iowa) on their annual spring trip to Florida. ONU then dropped a tough 5-4 contest to regionally ranked Coe (Iowa). This would be the last loss for the Polar Bears for over two months.

Northern dominated OAC regular season competition, dropping just five courts on its way to a 9-0 mark. The Polar Bears also topped nonconference foes Wittenberg, Wooster and Malone.

In the OAC Tournament, the ONU topped Wilmington by a 5-0 score in the Quarterfinals. The Polar Bears defeated Mount Union 5-1 in the Semifinals and clinched an automatic bid to the NCAA III Tournament with a 5-0 win over Otterbein in the OAC Tournament Championship.

In the NCAA III Tournament, the Polar Bears picked up their fourth victory with a 5-0 win over Concordia (Wis.). ONU saw its season draw to a close at the hands of No. 8 Trinity (Tx.) in the second round.

The Polar Bears 19 wins were tied for second most in program history. In addition, ONU posted 12 shutouts, which tied a school record and their 17 match win streak is fourth most all-time.