COLUMBUS, Ohio — The No. 12 University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team dropped their match Sunday afternoon to No. 1 Ohio State in Columbus.
Following a brief delay due to power, the two teams took the courts at 1:30 p.m. in a battle of top-15 teams. Both teams recently took part in the ITA Indoor National Championships in Chicago, Illinois.
Doubles
The Buckeyes claimed the doubles point with wins on courts one and three.
Singles
Axel Nefve and William Howells both earned first set victories in singles competition as Howells defeated his opponent, Hunter Tubert, 6-4 and Nefve won the tiebreaker 7-6(4).
Howells secured the Irish point on the sixth court when he rallied for the breaker 7-6.
Nefve who won the first set tiebreaker, dropped on in the second set to force a third super set. He and Martin Joyce fought for the final point of the evening with Joyce eventually coming out on top.
The other four singles fought hard against highly touted opponents, including the No. 1 singles player in JJ Wolf. No. 15 Alex Lebedev dropped a close first set to Wolf as the scoreboard showed 7-5. Matt Gamble also took Alex Kobelt, who ranks 91st in the country, to a tie break in the first set where the Buckeyes came out on top. On the second court, No. 93 Richard CIamarra fought hard against his 30th-ranked opponent, John McNally, dropping a tight set two by a score of 6-4.
Up Next
The Irish return home to Eck Tennis Pavilon to host Michigan State next Friday, March 1. The match is set for 3:30 p.m.