In facing perhaps their stiffest competition of the season, the Wright State men’s tennis team fell to the fifth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes 4-0 in Columbus Sunday.
OSU cruised through doubles competition, losing only two games in three matches and won three of the six completed singles matches.
“They played their full roster against us, and most times when they play against a school like us, they’re going to sit guys,” head coach Sean McCaffrey said. “We get a lot of experience out of playing teams like that because we’re not going to see anyone that good during the year.”
McCaffrey said his team was not intimidated by the nationally ranked Buckeyes and knew their matchup with OSU was just another part of a challenging schedule his players wanted.
“One of the ideas when we made our schedule this year—all the guys said they wanted to play the best players we could find,” McCaffrey said. “We have one of the toughest schedules in the nation. We played Louisville, Indiana and Michigan State this year, and that’s a heck of a schedule to play. The guys all knew what they were getting into.”
“The only thing they were really upset about was that two of their (OSU’s) guys couldn’t finish their matches,” McCaffrey said. “That really upset us, especially because one of our guys (Lauri Makikalli) had a chance to win against the fourth-ranked player in the nation (Peter Kobelt).”
The Raiders (12-8, 3-0) remain one game back of conference leader Green Bay. The team will travel to take on Green Bay Saturday at 2 p.m.
