The Ohio State men’s tennis program has been one of the most consistently high-achieving programs over the last fifteen years or so. The Buckeyes seem to have the Big Ten in a stranglehold and almost annually find their way to Orlando for the last 16 teams alive in the NCAA Championships.
This year was no different with OSU winning both the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles, then finding its way into the national championship match where it fell short to defending champion, Virginia.
To make it that far, Ohio State had to have some outstanding individual players, and that was certainly the case. So much so, that three of those players made it far enough in the individual portion of the NCAA Championships to garner All-American honors.
Freshman Alexander Bernard continued his late-season rise by making it all the way to the quarterfinals despite coming into the bracket as the No. 41 ranked player. He beat No. 53 Raphael Perot from Texas A&M, and No. 56 Sanir Banerjee of Stanford to secure his All-American status. Bernard went on to defeat No. 65 Andre Ilagan of Hawaii before succumbing to No. 9 Chris Rodesch of Virginia.
With his 7-5, 6-1 victory today over Connor Thomson of South Carolina, James Trotter advances to the round of 16 and earns All-America honors!!! #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/ZGuJ1a3pno
— Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioStateMTEN) May 23, 2023
James Trotter also earned All-American status by getting by No. 18 Alafia Ayeni of Kentucky in a tough three-setter, then winning over No. 16 Connor Thomson of South Carolina before falling to No. 20 Andrew Fenty of Michigan.
Cannon Kingsley also became an All-American for the third time in his career despite a tough three-set loss to No. 42 Murphy Cassone of Arizona State.
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