Trotter, Lutschaunig win title
Ohio State’s James Trotter and Andrew Lutschaunig won the NCAA men’s doubles championship Saturday afternoon with a straight-set victory.
Trotter and Lutschaunig defeated Texas’ Cleeve Harper and Eliot Spizzirri 6-4, 6-4 in Orlando, Florida, to become the second Buckeyes doubles team to win an NCAA title.
“It feels amazing,” Lutschaunig said. “I can’t really describe it. It hasn’t really set in yet.”
Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola won the championship in 2012. Since then, three Buckeyes teams have lost in the final, including last year, when Matej Vocel and Robert Cash fell to Longhorns Harper and Richard Ciamarra.
Both teams held serve for the first eight games of the match before Ohio State got a break to lead 5-4. Lutschaunig
then served out the first set easily.
Each team broke serve to start the second set before holding serve until the Buckeyes broke Texas at 4-4. Trotter ripped a backhand winner to give OSU a 0-40 lead and Lutschaunig hit an overhead winner for the break.
The Buckeyes lost the first three points on Trotter’s serve before winning the next three. Trotter then took over with his serve. At 40-all, he served an ace down the middle on match/break point for the championship.
“It was a 140 mph serve that left the guy shaking,” Ohio State coach Ty Tucker said. “It’s a fitting end to a good season. The unsung hero James Trotter, who was the MVP of the Big Ten tournament, came up huge. Down love-40 serving for the match, he came up with four huge first serves.”
Trotter and Lutschaunig defeated Harper and Spizzirri for the third time this season with the first victory coming on Feb. 5 in Columbus and the second 13 days later at the ITA indoor national championship.
Trotter, a fifth-year senior from Japan, ends his Ohio State career as a national champion. Lutschaunig is a senior but has one year of eligibility remaining.