Scarlet Sunrise: Ohio State men's tennis wins 2024 ITA Indoor National Championship

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Ohio State men’s tennis wins 2024 ITA Indoor National Championship

Ohio State men’s tennis captured its third indoor national title Monday when it defeated No. 2 TCU, 4-3, in the ITA National Indoor Team Championship.

The top-ranked Buckeyes (13-0) rallied after losing the doubles point and initially falling behind to the Horned Frogs (9-1) in singles competition. Fifth-year senior Robert Cash ultimately brought the title home to Columbus with a three-set victory.

The dramatic final marked the sixth all-time meeting between Ohio State and TCU. The series is tied, 3-3, after the programs have now squared off in championship-level matches three consecutive years. In 2022, the Horned Frogs defeated the Buckeyes in national indoors. And then last May, Ohio State cruised to a 4-0 win over TCU in the NCAA Tournament semifinals.

This time around, two-time defending indoor champ TCU got out in front by winning doubles matches on courts 1 and 2. Cash and sophomore Alexander Bernard delivered Ohio State’s lone doubles win of the day, and in dominant 6-2 fashion as well.

The Horned Frogs got out to a two-point lead, thanks to Jake Fearnley defeating Ohio State’s Cannon Kingsley in the first singles match to wrap. The Buckeyes knotted the team match score up at 2-2, courtesy of two-set wins from both Jack Anthrop and JJ Tracy.

Jack Pennington answered for TCU with 6-4, 6-4 set victories, reclaiming the team match lead for the Horned Frogs, 3-2.

That’s when Bernard and Cash handled business, albeit in three sets each. It came down to Cash, who maintained his break advantage and emerged victories from the decisive third set, 6-3.

💵#WeAreCollegeTennis x @OhioStateMTEN pic.twitter.com/4LzXFG7CAP

— ITA (@ITA_Tennis) February 19, 2024

Making case for, against each new Ohio State football assistant coaching hire

Ohio State added three assistant coaches this offseason: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Chip Kelly, linebackers coach James Laurinaitis and safeties coach Matt Guerrieri.

All three of them already have history with the staff they’re joining. Most notably, Kelly is reuniting with Ohio State head coach Ryan Day. Kelly was Day’s offensive coordinator when he quarterbacked University of New Hampshire in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Then Day worked under Kelly as a tight ends coach at UNH and a quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers.

Laurinaitis was a graduate assistant and assistant linebackers coach for the Buckeyes last season. The Ohio State legend and three-time consensus All-American is well versed in the Jim Knowles defense at this point. So is Guerrieri, who worked under Knowles at Duke for six years and spent the 2022 season with the Buckeyes as a senior advisor and analyst.

Lettermen Row made the case for and against each of those hires, weighing why each will work with the risk associated with each assistant. Check it out here.

Jake Diebler’s Buckeyes come together as family in memorable victory

Ohio State interim head coach Jake Diebler guided the Buckeyes to a head-turning upset win over No. 2 Purdue on Sunday.

But before that, he kept his staff and players together during a tumultuous week, set off by the midseason firing of seventh-year coach Chris Holtmann.

That tight-knit bond helped Ohio State stay in the moment against the Boilermakers.

“We’ve talked about family for three days,” Diebler said. “We’ve talked about how important that is. And I felt like we came together. We were a true family. We played like it. We coached like it.”

For the full story, go here.

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Counting Down

Buckeyes vs. Akron: 193 days
Buckeyes vs. Michigan: 284 days

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