Men's Tennis clinches share of OAC Regular Season title with 9-0 victory at Mount Union

By Tim Glon

ALLIANCE — The Ohio Northern men's tennis team clinched a share of the Ohio Athletic Conference Regular Season title with a 9-0 victory at Mount Union on Saturday.

The Polar Bears end the regular season 11-7 overall and 5-1 in OAC play, while the Purple Raiders fall to 2-7, 2-3.

Northern's victory, coupled with John Carroll's 5-4 victory over Otterbein, put ONU and JCU at 5-1 in OAC play. Otterbein is 4-1 and will play at Mount Union on Sunday with a chance to join ONU and JCU as league champions.

The Polar Bears won their 11th OAC Regular Season title in school history and their second in a row.

Northern swept the three doubles matches to take an early 3-0 lead.

Sophomore Sam Sran (Punjab, India/St. Stephens and Gian Jyoti Global) and freshman T.J. Schultz (Grand Blanc, Mich.) won 8-5 at No. 1 doubles, sophomores Peyton Specht (Munster, Ind.) and Drew Swisher (Findlay) won 8-2 at No. 2 and sophomore Tristan Munteanu (Draper, Utah/Corner Canyon) and junior Kavya Desai (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) won 8-0 at No. 3 doubles.

The Polar Bears then won all six singles matches to complete the 9-0 victory.

Munteanu won 7-5, 6-2 at No. 1, Sran won 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2, Specht won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3, Desai won 6-3, 6-7, 7-2 at No. 4, freshman Nico Rogel (Alicante, Spain/Hoosac) won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 5 and Schultz won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6.

The Polar Bears will continue with the OAC Tournament next week.

The tournament bracket will come out on Sunday night. ONU will likely be the No. 1 seed with an Otterbein loss at Mount Union and the No. 2 seed with an OU win at UMU.