Men's Tennis opens OAC slate with 7-2 victory over John Carroll

By Andrew Korba

ADA — Junior Michael Kathary, junior Nick Kowalczyk and freshman Do Thai all won twice to lead the Ohio Northern men's tennis team to a 7-2 win over John Carroll Saturday afternoon at the University Courts.

With the win the Polar Bears improve to 4-2 overall and 1-0 in the OAC while the Blue Streaks fall to 3-5, 0-1.

The Polar Bears began the match by taking all three doubles courts.

At No. 1 doubles, Kowalczyk and sophomore Joey Frank stormed back from an early hole to grab a 9-7 victory.

The tandem of Thai and Kathary won 8-3 at No. 2 doubles.

Senior Jeff Carter and junior Andrew Korba scored a 8-2 win at No. 3 doubles over Sean Graham and Michael Huelsman.

"Winning all three doubles courts was a great way to begin the match today" said head coach Bob Rohan. "All three teams played solid and did not give in and it seemed to give us strong momentum for the rest of the match.

In singles play, Kathary won 7-5, 6-1 at No. 2 singles over Ryan Mullaney.

At No. 3 singles, Thai won 6-2, 6-1.

Kowalczyk then won 6-3, 6-3 over Rico Certo at the No. 4 spot.

Freshman Josh Saunders finished out the winning for the Polar Bears win a 6-0, 6-3 over Huelsman at No. 6 singles.

"I am very happy with the win" Rohan added. "It is always good to get a conference win but we still have a long way to got to be satisfied with ourselves."

Ohio Northern will be in action again next weekend when they travel to the Wabash (Ind.) Invitational.