With a 4-3 lead in the second set, UCLA’s Marcos Giron was two points away from his first break in the match. Instead Ohio State’s Peter Kobelt came up to the net after his strong serve to give him the point advantage. On the next point, he fired an ace past Giron to escape danger.

But in the third set, down 4-5, Saturday’s hero Kobelt was unable to turn to his usually dominant serve. He was consistently unable to get in his first serve, leaving him vulnerable on his much-lighter second serve. He uncharacteristically double faulted at match point and handed UCLA the victory, sending the top-ranked Bruins to Tuesday afternoon’s final against the Cavaliers at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex.

The semifinal came down to No. 2 singles — similar to the Buckeyes’ semifinal win over the Trojans on Saturday. The duo exchanged holds in the first set until the Ohio State junior was able to finally break through after Giron committed two errors to give Kobelt 6-4. In the second set, the two did the same, reaching a tiebreak in which Giron came through 7-6 (4).

In the final game of the decisive set, Kobelt, who boasts a dominant serve, was leading and had multiple opportunities to even the match at 5-5, but he couldn’t serve with the same pace.

“After watching so many matches and seeing my guys do it, hoping opponents do it and they don’t,” UCLA head coach Billy Martin said when asked about Kobelt double faulting at match point. “It’s not bittersweet — to be really honest. … I’ll take it. Not think twice about it.”

Wind gusts were a factor throughout the afternoon as the NCAA committee was monitoring the conditions. At the start of the match, the wind speeds would need to be predicted to be at least 20 mph for two hours within the match at a sustained rate for the matches to be moved indoors, an NCAA committee member said.

Giron said he could be aggressive in the second-set tiebreak because Kobelt’s serve didn’t have the same “pizazz” as it did before.

“In the first set, it was really tricky because his serve wasn’t really popping as big as it usually is due to the wind,” said Giron, a sophomore. “All of a sudden, it may not necessarily be so hard, but there’s so much action on the ball with the win. It wasn’t really predictable.

“I knew going into the match I had to take care of my own serve and hopefully I get a break.”

Giron’s break came after No. 12-ranked Blaz Rola of No. 5 Ohio State came from a set down to defeat No. 27 Dennis Novikov 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in the second-to-last match, tying the overall match at three. Rola was coming off a dominant win Saturday over Southern Cal’s No. 7 Emilio Gomez. UCLA started the match with the doubles point victory.

For Martin, this victory means more than just a chance at the program’s 17th NCAA title, last of which came in 2005. He is an Evanston, Ill., native and attended Oak Park River Forest High School. He won the state championship, which was hosted in Champaign, during his freshman year in 1971.

His team will face No. 2 Virginia, which clinched its match about 10 minutes before the Ohio State-UCLA match. The Cavaliers’ 4-1 victory was highlighted by No. 2 Alex Domijan’s come-from-behind victory of Nathan Pasha of the Bulldogs 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 at No. 2 singles. His victory clinched an appearance for Virginia in the final for a third consecutive year.

Mac Styslinger had multiple chances to close out the team match in the second set on Court 5, with the other two matches early in the third set. But he and Garrett Brasseaux exchanged mini-breaks in the tiebreak before Brasseaux sent it to the third set with a 7-6 (7) win. No. 33 Ben Wagland of Georgia defeated No. 3-ranked Jarmere Jenkins at No. 1 to begin singles play.

“(The last two years) helps tremendously. The experience the guys have had in the moment. You can’t buy experience,” Cavaliers’ head coach Brian Boland said, dismissing the two losses in the finals in as many years.

Virginia, all day long, was backed by a loud crowd that cheered nearly every point, especially during doubles play.

Darshan can be reached at [email protected] and @drshnpatel.