Men's Tennis wins ninth OAC Regular Season Championship with 7-2 win over Mount Union

By Patrick Massara

ADA - The Ohio Northern men's tennis team defeated Mount Union 7-2 to win the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season championship Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.

The championship is the ninth in school history, the first since 2008 and the fourth in the past five seasons.

The Polar Bears finish the regular season at 16-2 overall and 9-0 in conference action while the Purple Raiders move to 16-2 overall and 8-1 in the OAC.

With his team leading 4-2 as a team, ONU freshman Joey Frank won the match with an ace down the middle of the court in No. 1 singles to clinch the team victory. Frank defeated Zach Perry 7-5, 6-4 in the match.

"Regardless of the conditions today, our team was resilient, put it together today, and come out on top," ONU coach Bob Rohan said. "We beat a good team today and we are most likely going to have to see them again the conference tournament. Today was the regular season championship and nothing more than that as we still have the tournament next week."

The Polar Bears gained an early 2-1 team lead after completion of the doubles matches.

Frank and sophomore Nick Kowalczyk defeated Brian Mogus and Yasuhiro Anno 8-4 in No. 1 doubles.

In No. 2 doubles, junior Jeff Carter and sophomore Andrew Korba won 8-2 against Perry and Travis Papay.

In No. 3 singles, Carter had the longest match of the afternoon as he came from behind to defeat Brian Widdoes in three sets, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 10-6.

Korba won his No. 4 singles match with a 7-5, 6-3 against Papay.

Ohio Northern's Kyle Barnaba defeated Anno 6-3, 6-3 in No. 5 singles action.

In No. 6 singles, ONU freshman Mike King moved to 6-0 in conference singles play with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Nate Fockler.

With the win today, the Polar Bears also earned the No. 1 seed in next week's OAC Tournament, where they will host No. 8 seeded Muskingum Tuesday at 3:30 pm at University Courts.