May 9—COLUMBUS, Ohio — The second rain delay of Friday’s Super Regional men’s tennis match between Illinois and Ohio State finally sent the final singles matches inside at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center after the first created a 75-minute break in action in Columbus.
The warmup ultimately took longer than the final points necessary for Ohio State to finish off its 4-0 sweep of the Illini and advance to the Elite Eight.
Kenta Miyoshi had a pair of game points to extend his No. 2 singles match against Ohio State’s Jack Anthrop, but a misplayed point from the Illinois senior set up Anthrop for match point. The Buckeyes’ senior delivered a massive shot past Miyoshi for a 6-4, 6-3 victory that gave his team the victory.
“We felt incredibly confident at that spot,” Illinois coach Brad Dancer said. “Kudos to Anthrop for outplaying him. It was hard to see Kenta, who’s meant so much over the last four years, to be the match that’s clinched on, but sometimes you don’t get the fairytale ending. A lot of credit to Ohio State in the way they played at singles.”
Anthrop was in position to deliver the match-winning singles victory after Ohio State (32-4) claimed the doubles point to take the early advantage. Unforced errors tripped up Illinois at No. 3 doubles to stake the Buckeyes to the early lead for that point, and an opportunity to close out the match at No. 2 doubles and put more pressure on the No. 1 pairing was also missed.
Singles victories from Ohio State’s Nikita Filin and Alexander Bernard at Nos. 4 and 6, respectively, added to the Buckeyes’ push for a match sweep.
“We’d lost that spot twice earlier,” Dancer said about the No. 4 singles match between Filin and Illinois freshman Adam Jilly. “We felt like Jilly had made such growth this season that we felt really, really good about that match. Filin just outplayed him at that spot.
“Bernard at 6 changed his game plan. (Illinois freshman Hayden Jones) had beaten him twice before, and he came out with a different strategy this time. That was a little surprising to Jones and our ability to adapt to that.”
Illinois closed out its season with a 24-8 record and the program’s 18th appearance in the Super Regional round. Notably, though, it was the Illini’s first Sweet 16 since 2021 and came with four of the program’s five freshmen in the lineup against Ohio State.
The maturation of his team was clear to Dancer the past three months. It’s why Illinois wound up hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament and reaching the Sweet 16.
“That’s a big, positive step for us,” Dancer said. “This is a team that sort of re-energized our fan base. We’re over here at Ohio State, and our crowd was just as loud as their crowd was. We’ve got buses and vans and airplanes coming over here. The biggest thing for me is a huge thank you to Champaign and our fans that made the trek over here and really supported us down the stretch of the season. It made for some memorable moments for our guys.”