WESTERVILLE – The Otterbein men's tennis team came up just short in a hard-fought battle against Ohio Northern on Thursday, falling 4-3 in a matchup between the top two teams in the Ohio Athletic Conference standings. 

The Basics: 

• Records: Otterbein (13-8 overall, 2-1 OAC), Ohio Northern (9-7 overall, 3-0 OAC)
• Venue: Sanders Tennis Courts - Westerville, Ohio

Singles

• #1: Junior Max Fickas won 6-1, 6-2 over Peyton Specht.
• #2: Freshman Sanjan Shanker won 4-6, 7⁷-6⁴, 1¹⁰-0⁶ over Thomas Schultz.
• #3: Sophomore Neil Reddy fell 0-6, 1-6 to Tyler Wood.
• #4: Sophomore Jake Chilcote fell 3-6, 2-6 to Noah Boyce.
• #5: Sophomore Nikita Kitaev fell 0-6, 0-6 to Kessler Hackenberger.
• #6: Senior Will Newberry won 6-2, 6-3 over Kosuke Asada.

Doubles

• #1: Fickas and Reddy fell 1-6 to Specht and Wood.
• #2: Chilcote and Newberry fell 6⁷-7⁹ to Schultz and Boyce.
• #3: Kitaev and Shanker fell 5-7 to Asada and Hackenberger.

Notables

• Tenth-year head coach Tyler Stephen is 110-68 during his tenure leading the men's tennis team at Otterbein.
• Newberry (14-5) and Chilcote (13-9) lead the Cardinals in singles wins on the season.
• Newberry leads the team in doubles victories on the year with a 15-7 record.
• Newberry (29-12) leads the team in overall wins on the season, followed by Chilcote (25-18) and Kitaev (24-23).
• Newberry boasts a 74-46 career record at Otterbein (37-23 in singles, 37-23 in doubles).