Men's Tennis wins fourth consecutive OAC Tournament crown with 4-1 finals victory over Otterbein

WOOSTER — The Ohio Northern men's tennis team won its fourth consecutive Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament title with a 4-1 finals victory over Otterbein indoors on Saturday afternoon.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (12-8 Overall); Otterbein (15-9).
• Venues: Aspen Racquet Club — Wooster, Ohio.

Individual Highlights

• ONU grabbed two of the three the doubles courts to win the doubles point, then won the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 singles courts to record the victory.
• Sophomore Kosuke Asada (Findlay) and sophomore Kessler Hackenberger (Tipp City/Tippecanoe) won 6-1 at No. 3 doubles.
• Senior Peyton Specht (Munster, Ind.) and sophomore Tyler Wood (Toledo/St. John's) won 6-4 at No. 1 doubles to clinch the doubles point for Ohio Northern.
• Wood then won 6-2, 6-0 at No. 3 singles to give ONU a 2-1 lead.
• Freshman Noah Boyce (Oakwood) won 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4 singles to increase the lead to 3-1.
• Hackenberger clinched the tournament title with a 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 5 singles.

Notables

• The Polar Bears were the No. 1 seed in the tournament and the Cardinals are the No. 2 seed.
• Northern has now won 14 OAC Tournament titles, including 10 since the league began its current format in 2002.
• ONU is now 10-6 in its 16 OAC Tournament finals matches.
• The Polar Bears lead the series with Otterbein by a 43-13 margin and are 7-5 against the Cardinals in OAC Tournament competition.
• The NCAA had adopted a 7-point team scoring system for Division III, where the three doubles contests only count for one team point as is used in NCAA Divisions I and II.
• In tournament play, the three doubles matches are played to completion, meaning as soon as one team wins two courts and the doubles point, the remaining match is not completed.
• The same is true in singles matches as soon a team wins the required four team points to clinch the match.
• Wood leads the team with a 21-7 singles record and Boyce is right behind at 20-9.
• Boyce has a team-high 15 doubles wins.
• Wood and Boyce each have team-best 35 overall victories.
• Specht is 120-85 overall in his career, which includes a 55-46 singles mark and a 65-39 doubles record.
• His 120 victories put him No. 9 all-time in ONU history and his 63 doubles wins ranks 10th all-time at ONU.
• Senior Sam Sran (Punjab, India/St. Stephens and Gian Jyoti Global) is 51-41 in singles, 28-37 in doubles and is 79-78 overall.
• Third-year head coach Sean Swisher is 44-22 at the helm of the ONU men's tennis team, a winning percentage of .667.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will wait to see their NCAA Tournament site and opponent on the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Selection Show on Monday at 12:30 PM ET on NCAA.com.