PREVIEW: Kentucky Men’s Tennis vs Ohio State in Final Four

The No. 8 seed Kentucky Wildcats (25-7) are scheduled to play the No. 4 seed Ohio State Buckeyes (27-3) Saturday, May 21 at 11:00 AM EST in the NCAA national semifinals in Champaign, Illinois with a berth in the championship game on the line. There are possible storms in the forecast so the start time could be altered or the match moved indoors. 

If you can’t make the five-hour trip up north, watch on the TennisOne app for free or follow me (@teeroyhowell) on Twitter for updates.

The Wildcats knocked off DePaul (4-0), Northwestern (4-2), and #9 Wake Forest (4-2) in Lexington to make their first Elite 8 appearance since 2011, punching a ticket to Illinois in the process. There they knocked off #1 TCU in a 4-3 thriller to make the first semifinal in school history.  

“We are going to enjoy this (win) for a couple, a few hours, but we set a goal at the beginning of the season and we are going to try to fulfill it,” Kentucky head coach Cedrick Kaufmann said after the victory. “We have two more tough opponents, hopefully, so we have to get back, stretch, hydrate and get back to the practice courts.” 

Ohio State eliminated bitter rival Michigan 4-2 in their quarterfinal. The Buckeyes are a traditional tennis power, having made the finals as recently as 2018, where they lost to Wake Forest.

Potential Matchups

Kentucky vs Ohio State

No. 1 Singles:  #4 Liam Draxl (JR) CANADA (15-7) vs #9 Cannon Kingsley (JR) NEW YORK (19-3)
No. 2 Singles:  #21 Gabriel Diallo (JR) CANADA (20-3) vs #13 Matej Vocel (5TH) Czech Republic (19-3)
No. 3 Singles:  #83 Millen Hurrion (5TH) ENGLAND (21-7) vs #19 JJ Tracy (SO) SOUTH CAROLINA (18-0)
No. 4 Singles:  Francois Musitelli (5TH) FRANCE (17-9) vs #127 Jake Van Emburgh (5TH) Florida (12-4)
No. 5 Singles: Joshua Lapadat (SO) CANADA (21-3) vs Justin Boulais (JR) CANADA (10-2)
No. 6 Singles: JJ Mercer (SO) WEST VIRGINIA (7-10) vs Andrew Lutschaunig (JR) PENNSYLVANIA (4-1)

No. 1 Doubles: #55 Musitelli/Hurrion (5-5) vs #2 Vocel/ Robert Cash (JR) OHIO (18-4)
No. 2 Doubles:  Diallo/Lapadat (5-3) vs Boulais/Lutschaunig (5-6)
No. 3 Doubles:  Draxl/Alexandre LeBlanc (JR) CANADA (8-4) vs Kingsley/Tracy (19-2)

Quarterfinal Results:
#8 Kentucky 4, #1 TCU 3
#4 Ohio State 4, #5 Michigan 2
#6 Tennessee 4, #3 Baylor 3
#7 Virginia 4, #1 Florida 1

Kentucky: Regular Season vs Final Four Teams 
Ohio State 4, Kentucky 0 
Virginia 4, Kentucky 2
Kentucky 4, Tennessee 3

Ohio State blanked Kentucky early in the season, but that match was indoors in Columbus, where the Buckeyes dominated all year. OSU was ranked #1 in the country at the time and has faltered just a bit since then. Most of the individual matchups will be different on Saturday. Throw that result out, but if you are interested in what happened…..

Feb. 11, 2022: #1 Ohio State 4, #10 Kentucky 0

Singles competition:
1. #16 Cannon Kingsley (OSU) def. Millen Hurrion (UK) 6-2, 6-4
2. #6 Matej Vocel (OSU) vs. Liam Draxl (UK) 7-5, 3-4, unfinished
3. Jake Van Emburgh (OSU) vs. #5 Gabriel Diallo (UK) 7-6 (7-5), 1-2, unfinished 
4. #11 JJ Tracy (OSU) def. Francois Musitelli (UK) 6-1, 6-3
5. #36 James Trotter (OSU) vs. JJ Mercer (UK) 4-6, 6-3, unfinished
6. Robert Cash (OSU) def. #37 Joshua Lapadat (UK) 6-1, 6-4

Doubles competition:
1. #1 Robert Cash/Matej Vocel (OSU) def. Millen Hurrion/Liam Draxl (UK) 6-3
2. #2 James Trotter/Justin Boulais (OSU) vs. Francois Musitelli/Yasha Zemel (UK) 4-5, unfinished 
3. JJ Tracy/Cannon Kingsley (OSU) def. #57 Joshua Lapadat/JJ Mercer (UK) 6-3

Match notes:
Kentucky 7-1; National ranking #10
Ohio State 8-0; National ranking #1

Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (4,1,6)

NCAA Final Four schedule (Saturday, May 21)

#8 Kentucky vs # 4 Ohio State – 11:00 AM EST
#6 Tennessee vs #7 Virginia – 2:00 PM EST

Connections

• Ohio State’s Jake Van Emburgh is the son of Greg Van Emburgh, who was an All-American at Kentucky and a successful pro player. Jake transferred from Oklahoma to Ohio State this season.
• UK volunteer assistant Peter Kobelt played tennis at Ohio State, where he was a dominant doubles player. He is in his second season with the ‘Cats.
• JJ Mercer, who plays #6 singles for Kentucky, is a transfer from Ohio State.

Scoring

All lets are played. Singles matches are best of three tiebreak sets, with no-ad scoring. Doubles matches are one set. Whichever school wins two doubles matches earns the doubles point. Singles matches are worth one point each. The first team to win four points captures the match.

Path to victory

The doubles point for Kentucky would really, really help, but is not a must. Both UK and Ohio State lost doubles but won their quarterfinal matches. Kentucky also dropped doubles in the Round of 16 vs Wake Forest.

Hurrion and Musitelli were leading the #1 duo in the country (TCU) before the match was suspended. They will need to bring that same energy because Ohio State has the #2 doubles pair in the country in Cash and Vocel. I think OSU will be favored at 3 and can likely find one more to take doubles.

In singles, unlike the ‘Cats, Ohio State often mixes up its lineup making it tricky to predict. They are known for being coy with lineup decisions. For example, #46-ranked James Trotter could possibly slide back into the lineup at 5 after missing the quarterfinal vs Michigan.

Tracy (court 3) is undefeated and probably the player the Buckeyes count on most often. Van Emburgh (court 4) is probably their biggest question mark. Hurrion has been money for UK lately on 3 and Musitelli bounced back from a slight slump to earn a crucial victory over TCU on 4. I’ll say the teams split those two courts one way or the other. With Lapadat being so consistent for Kentucky, I’ll take him on 5, but lean Buckeyes on 6.

Draxl has been focused lately, looking like the player that made a run to the singles semis last year. He should have a barn burner at 1 vs Kingsley, but I’ll go with Draxl. Court 2 (Diallo vs Vocel) will be a coin flip similar to doubles but I’ll take the Wildcat Diallo to clinch again.