Standing room only.

That was the situation at the Nordstrom Tennis Center yesterday as the Huskies took on No. 1 Ohio State.

A packed house watched the match, and while they left disappointed with a 6-1 loss, the score did not reflect the closeness of the contests nor the effort put forth by the Huskies.

“Even though it was 6-1, it was very close,” sophomore Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan said. “We know what’s out there. We know just how good all these teams are. If we can stay on the things we need to and work hard as a team, we can play close and beat any team, because we nearly beat the best team.”

The deciding factor between the two teams was experience. Ohio State played better in the clutch, winning all tiebreaker points and generally making life tough on Washington.

“At first doubles, it seemed like it was pretty even the whole way,” head coach Matt Anger said. “We were up in the breaker and certainly had a chance to win there. But that shows where they’re making the extra ball each point, each game, which comes from the experience that they have.”

There were some bright spots in the match for the Dawgs. After scraping by with a close three-set victory last week, junior Derrick Drabble bested No. 77 Shuhei Uzawa this week 6-4, 6-4.

“I felt like I was serving really well,” Drabble said. “I thought I was volleying well and covering well. I have Ryo [Sekiguchi], crazy [David Chu] and guys I was hitting with this week to thank for that.”

Nedunchezhiyan took No. 3 Steven Moneke to a tiebreaker third set, which he lost 5-10, while Patrick Fischer was a tiebreaker loss away from taking No. 1 Bryan Koniecko to a third set as well.

But it was the failure to capitalize on these opportunities that separated the Huskies from the No. 1 Buckeyes.

“They didn’t have the lapses, and that’s why they’re ranked ahead of us,” Anger said. “I did see in certain situations when we fell back to old habits under pressure, and that is natural and yet that’s what you have to overcome to jump up from one level to the next.”

Reach reporter Zach Ruby at sports@dailyuw.com.