Men's Tennis sweeps Mount Union 9-0 on Senior Day, sets up battle with JCU for OAC Regular Season title

By Tim Glon

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's tennis team moved to 5-0 in league play and set up a winner-take-all showdown for the Ohio Athletic Conference Regular Season title with a 9-0 Senior Day victory over Mount Union on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon at the West Campus Courts.

The Polar Bears improve to 19-4 overall and are 5-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference after posting their sixth consecutive victory, while the Purple Raiders fall to 1-9, 1-5.

With the win, ONU sets up a battle for the league crown on Friday when John Carroll and its undefeated league record come to the West Campus Courts for a 3:30 pm contest that will decide the OAC Regular Season crown and the No. 1 seed in next week's OAC Tournament.

Northern also clinched a first round bye in the OAC Tournament with the win and will move on to the semifinals on May 6 at the Lindner Tennis Center in Mason.

It was Senior Day at ONU and the team honored its three seniors - Zach Beaschler (Ada), senior Andrew Cochran (Wooster) and Vinh Thai (Galloway/St.Charles) - in a pre-match ceremony.

The trio responded, leading their doubles teams to convincing victories to give ONU a quick 3-0 lead.

Thai and junior Matt Garcia (Downers Grove, Ill./South) won 8-0 at No. 1, Cochran and freshman Peyton Specht (Munster, Ind.) won 8-0 at No. 2 and Beaschler and sophomore Drew Swisher (Findlay) won 8-1 at No. 3.

In singles play, Cochran won 6-4, 6-2 at No. 1, Thai won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2 and Beaschler won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6.

Freshman Sam Sran (PB, India/St. Stephens and Gian Jyoti Global) won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 3 singles, Specht won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 4 singles and freshman Tristan Munteanu (Draper, Utah/Corner Canyon) won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 5 singles wrap up the sweep.