For the second straight time in the NCAA men’s tennis championships, Ohio State’s survival depended on a last-match, third-set tie-break.
But unlike in the round-of-16 victory over Texas, the Buckeyes couldn’t come through. Mikael Torpegaard lost 8-6 in the tie-break to California’s Florian Lakat and Ohio State fell 4-3 in the quarterfinals in Tulsa, Okla.
Chris Diaz at No. 2, Hugo Di Feo at No. 3 and Martin Joyce at No. 6 won singles matches for the fifth-seeded Buckeyes, the first two after losing the first set. Joyce, the hero of Friday’s victory over Texas with his tie-break win, had little drama in a 6-3, 6-2 victory.