COLUMBUS, Ohio – As Illinois tennis coach Brad Dancer knelt next to Brandon Davis late in the second set of his match with Ohio State’s Drew Eberly, the Buckeyes’ coach was nowhere near the court. Instead, Ty Tucker was casually tossing tennis ball passes to two children at the opposite end of the tennis arena.

By that point, Tucker and the Buckeyes could afford to take it easy.

Illinois came out flat against Ohio State and Sunday’s much-ballyhooed Big Ten showdown turned into a 7-0 scarlet and gray romp.

“Ohio State just outplayed us at every position,” Dancer said. “They were definitely a better team than us today.”

The Buckeyes won all three doubles matches and surrendered only one set in the six singles matches. The only thing that extended the match was the fact that Ohio State’s Jesse Owens West tennis facility has only four courts, delaying two of the singles matches until others had finished. By the time Davis and Eberly began their sixth singles match, Ohio State had already clinched.

The tone was set early in doubles, where Illinois’ Kevin Anderson and Ryan Rowe, the defending NCAA champions, were toppled by Devin Mullings and Chris Klingemann as part of an Ohio State sweep. When the Illini dropped all four of their first sets in singles, the match was all but over.

The match was typified at the top singles spot, where Anderson, the No. 5 player in the country, seemed in control of most of his points against No. 35 Mullings. But Mullings outlasted Anderson time after time, returning just enough shots to force an error, and then came up with a series of spectacular passing shots to sneak the ball past the 6-foot-7 Anderson at the net. The 6-3, 7-5 win was one of the biggest of Mullings’ career.

“It means a lot,” Mullings said. “We beat the top doubles team, and I had a pretty good win over Anderson. Usually when I’m playing against people that have big serves, I usually lose my serve, and then they have the advantage. But I held serve today, and I stuck to my gameplan, and I played well.”

The Illini lost the top four singles matches in straight sets, but their problems were not just on the court. GD Jones, who was sick all week, retired shortly after earning an early break in his fifth singles match with Klingemann.

“Once the team match was over there was no point in him finishing,” Dancer said.

Jones’s retirement left Davis and Eberly beginning their match after all the other courts had cleared.

After Eberly took the first set and Tucker started his game of catch, Davis rebounded and came up with one scintillating volley after another to win the second 6-3.

When he took a 4-2 lead in the deciding tiebreaker, it looked like Illinois might claim a match after all.

But Eberly came up with two spectacular passing shots down the stretch and completed the Ohio State sweep with a 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 win.

The loss spoiled an easy 5-2 Illinois win over Indiana on Saturday and left the Illini in third place in the Big Ten, uncharted territory for the former conference kings.

“There’s not too much positive to take out of getting our butts handed to us 7-0,” Dancer said. “If anything, I hope it’s a wake-up call for us.”