COLUMBUS, Ohio -- For the ninth consecutive year, Ohio State claimed a Big Ten outright regular-season championship. The No. 1 Buckeyes (26-3, 10-0 Big Ten) defeated Iowa (9-13, 1-9 Big Ten) 7-0 on Friday evening at the Varsity Tennis Center in front of home crowd of 300 guests. Guided under director of tennis and head coach Ty Tucker, the Scarlet and Gray extended their NCAA home win streak record to 188-consecutive matches, while improving their Big Ten regular-season win streak to 92-consecutive contests. The program has now collected 13 conference championships in program history.
Redshirt junior Hunter Callahan clinched the match for the Buckeyes, winning 6-2, 6-3 on court No. 5 against Dominic Patrick on a returned serve. Callahan improves to a team-best 28 wins in 2014, while claiming his seventh match point of the year, which also leads the squad.
The Buckeyes slightly altered the doubles lineup, with freshman Marko Goles-Babic teaming up with freshman Herkko Pollanen at No. 3 doubles. Senior Peter Kobelt and redshirt freshman Ralf Steinbach claimed an 8-2 victory against Brian Aiden and Michael Swank on court No. 1 to start out doubles play. Goles-Babic served back-to-back aces to down Chase Tomlins and Joey White 8-6 on court No. 3, giving Ohio State the doubles point. Callahn and redshirt sophomore Chris Diaz trailed Jonas Diercks and Matt Hagan 6-4 on court No. 2 when play was suspended.
Kobelt was the first to finish on court No. 1 in singles, picking up a consecutive set win 6-1, 6-1 against Diercks. With the win Kobelt now has 117 career singles wins, which is seventh-best in the OSU record book. The two victories tonight also put him at 248 career combined wins, passing former Buckeye All-American Steven Moneke (2006-09) for third on the OSU all-time list.
Goles-Babic finished second on court No. 6 with a 6-2, 6-3 win against Swank. The win marks his second of the dual season for the first-year Buckeye. Pollanen followed Callahan on court No. 5 with a 6-1, 6-2 victory vs. Aiden, while Diaz was victorious on court No. 3, downing Andres Estenssoro 6-1, 6-1. Steinbach was the last to finish vs. the Hawkeyes and saved triple-match point in the second set to force a third-set super tiebreaker and won it 10-5.
