Men's Tennis runs win streak to nine, edges AMC champion Walsh 5-4

By Patarick Massara

NORTH CANTON – The Ohio Northern men's tennis team kept up its winning ways Monday afternoon as it won its ninth consecutive match, going on the road to defeat American Mideast Conference regular season champion Walsh 5-4 in a non-conference match.

The Polar Bears are now 11-2 overall on the season while the Cavaliers move to 12-5 overall.

Northern took an early 2-1 lead by winning the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches.

In the No. 1 doubles match, sophomore Nick Kowalczyk and freshman Joey Frank forced a tiebreaker and defeated Gary and Mark Innes 9-8 (7-5).

"I'm proud that our number one doubles team was able to come from behind and earn that win," ONU coach Bob Rohan said. "(Walsh) was their conference's regular season champions for a reason and this was very good for us to beat them."

Junior Jeff Carter and sophomore Andrew Korba won their No. 2 doubles match 8-2 over Jonathan Esber and Pierre Le Grange.

In No. 2 singles, Kowalczyk defeated Esber 6-3, 6-2 to pick up his second win of the day.

Junior Kyle Barnaba defeated Jarred Gable 7-5, 6-1 in No. 5 singles.

Freshman Mike King won the No. 6 singles match 6-0, 6-3 by defeating Chase Pucci.

Ohio Northern is back to Ohio Athletic Conference action on Wednesday as it hosts Otterbein at 3:30 pm.