Huskers Fall to Buckeyes in Quarterfinals

The No. 64 Nebraska men’s tennis team lost to No. 3 Ohio State by a score of 4-0 in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Men’s Tennis Tournament on Thursday evening at Libbey Park in Ojai, Calif. 

The Big Red, after upsetting No. 39 Michigan in the first round, fell short of the doubles point and lost three singles matches to the two seeded Buckeyes.  

The Huskers stayed all square with the Buckeyes throughout doubles until Ohio State sealed the matches at No. 1 and 3. Henry Bilicic/Nikolay Sysoev (NEB) dropped their match vs. No. 5 Brandon Carpico/Nikita Filin (OSU), 3-6. At No. 3, Colson Wells/Henry Lamchinniah (NEB) sat one game away from tying their match at five all but ultimately fell short losing their match vs. No. 53 Aidan Kim/Byrce Nakashima (OSU), 4-6. 

No. 78 Joan Torres Espinosa/Leo Linquet’s (NEB) match was left abandoned vs. No. 39 Alex Okonkwo/Alexander Bernard (OSU) as they lead 5-3 in that match. 

In singles, the Huskers were set back by the Buckeyes, only taking one first set on all courts. At No. 5 singles, Niels Van Der Sijs dropped his match to #118 Nakashima, 0-6, 1-6. No. 117 Sysoev was the next off the singles courts after losing to No. 12 Kim, 2-6, 2-6. 

After those matches, NU stuck close on the four remaining courts. Despite that freshman Jeri Lassila was unable to hold onto his match dropping it at No. 4, 6-7 [4-7], 3-6 vs. No. 85 Filin securing the sweep and the win for Ohio State over Nebraska, knocking the Huskers out of the Big Ten Tournament. 

Linquet, Wells and Espinosa’s matches were all abandoned in the second sets.