On the same day the Ohio State women's tennis team punched its ticket to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, the men's team won to head into the championship match against No. 1 seed Michigan State, winning a very close match against Illinois 4-3 on Friday night in Ojai, California.
The Buckeyes beat the Illini earlier this year 5-2, but it was a close shave this time around with more on the line. The Buckeyes got off on the right foot by grabbing the doubles point with a 7-5 victory on court two from Alexander Bernard and Alex Okonkwo and a tiebreaker, 7-6(8), win from Aidan Kim and Bryce Nakashima on court three to go up 1-0.
The Illini made things interesting by winning the first two singles matches to take a 2-1 lead. No. 28 Gabriel Debru of Illinois defeated #12 Aidan Kim in two consecutive sets, and No. 16 Kenta Miyoshi downed No. 29 Jack Anthrop in two sets.
Ohio State tied things up at 2-2, though when Nikita Filin won on court four with a 6-3 set one victory and a 6-4 set two win. The result was his 15th consecutive singles victory, and it got things going back in the right direction for the Scarlet and Gray.
Preston Stearns finished just after Filin with a two-set win. He defeated No. 100 Wiliam Mroz 7-5, 6-2 for his fifth consecutive singles win. But Illinois would not go away and tied things up at 3 points each when Alexander Bernard lost a tiebreaker in the first set and was defeated 6-4 in the second set. That set up a winner-take-all match for Bryce Nakashima and Zachary Viiala on court five.
Nakashima was clutch. He dropped the first set 1-6 but then rallied to win the next two sets 6-3, 6-3 to clinch for Ohio State and send the Buckeyes into the Big Ten Tournament final on Saturday.
Final from Ojai, California, Ohio State wins it over the Illini 4-3. The Buckeyes will face Michigan State for the Big Ten Tournament Title at 8 p.m. ET Saturday. #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/MzabjeR8Q7
— Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioStateMTEN) April 25, 2026
Ohio State and Michigan State are scheduled to do battle out in California at 8 p.m. ET. We'll have the result of that match for you when it concludes, hopefully with another conference title for OSU.
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This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Ohio State men's tennis wins close match, heads to B1G Tourney final