Men's Tennis advances to Second Round of NCAA Tournament with 5-0 victory over Western Connecticut State

By Steven Wright

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The Ohio Northern men's tennis team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament with a 5-0 victory over Western Connecticut State Thursday afternoon on the campus of Carnegie Mellon (Pa.).

The Polar Bears have now won 18 consecutive matches and improve to 20-2 on the season. WCSU ends its season at 13-1.

Northern got off to a nice start with by sweeping all three doubles competition.

Jeff Carter and Andrew Korba earned the first victory at No. 2 doubles by defeating Juan Ocampos and Tyler Brown 8-2. Mike Dutro and Matt King quickly followed with an 8-3 victory at No. 3 doubles over Kyle Fiengo and Austin Werner.

Joey Frank and Nick Kowalczyk then rallied from a 7-5 deficit to comeback and defeat Troy Pandolfi and John Phillips 9-7 by winning four straight games.

King and Carter earned the victories in singles to end the match. King defeated Werner at No. 6 singles 6-0, 6-0, and Carter defeated Ocampos at No. 3 singles 6-2, 6-2.

The Polar Bears will be in action again tomorrow against No. 8 Carnegie Mellon at 1 pm.