By John Bray, Reed Dickerson and Alex Pijanowski
Golf
Over the weekend, Kenyon’s golf team came up short in taking the BSN Invitational ﾗ instead securing third place in the tournament, which they hosted.
In Saturday’s opening round, the Lords tied for first by exploiting their familiarity with the Apple Valley Golf Course. Alex Blickle ’15 led the field with a two-under-par 70. Jacob Fait ’16 and Jordan Harlacher ’16 joined Blickle in the top 10, finishing tied for ninth, each with a 77.
The Invitational changed courses for Sunday’s round, and the Mount Vernon Country Club posed a challenge. Only eventual winner Allegheny College improved its score. Harlacher and Fait led the Lords with scores of 76 and 78, respectively. The Lords shot 319 on the day, bringing their overall score to 621 and a third-place finish. Though they did not sit atop the leaderboards, this was their second straight top-five finish.
Head Coach Grant Wallace believes he knows the secret to their recent success. “Their nerves aren’t there anymore,” Wallace said. “They just go out and battle.”
Next weekend, the Lords travel to the Owen Community College Fall Invitational.
Volleyball
On Tuesday, the Kenyon volleyball team faced No. 12 Wittenberg University at home in Tomsich Arena. Despite the home court advantage, the Ladies dropped the match in straight sets and lost 0-3.
“Volleyball’s such a game of momentum and energy levels, and tonight it was very quiet; our team struggled with [our] own energy levels,” Head Coach Katie Charles said. “There wasn’t a lot going on around them; Wittenberg was very quiet, so it was very hard to create that momentum for ourselves.”
After three tough sets, the Ladies were disappointed in their performance.
“Our passing got away from us a little bit, they [the team] weren’t really speaking to each other, they were down because we just got bounced in [the final] two games,” Charles said.
This Saturday, Oct. 5, the Ladies have their next match against DePauw University at 1 p.m. This match will be the Ladies’ Dig Pink game, and they will sell t-shirts and raffle tickets for breast cancer awareness.
Men’s Tennis
Check off yet another box on the to-do list for Kenyon men’s tennis. On Monday, Sept. 29, Sam Geier ’16 became the first player in Kenyon history to win the singles division at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Region Tournament.
The event, which took place in Kalamazoo, Mich., featured 128 players in its singles division. At the tournament’s conclusion, Geier was the last one standing.
Geier entered the tournament as the 21st seed, but he looked strong from the start of matches on Friday and never relinquished momentum. In a hard-fought final match against Deepak Sabada of the University of Chicago, he won both sets (7-5, 7-6). Sabada was seeded third in the tournament. In winning this competition, Geier also earned automatic All-American status.
“I wasn’t really going in expecting to win the whole thing,” Geier said. “It was just complete shock. I’ve never won a tournament that big.”
Pete Dakich ’17 also turned in a strong performance. He won his first three matches before losing to Eric Klawitter of Case Western Reserve University.
Though the men’s team has finished competition for the fall, Geier said many team members plan to continue training on their own in preparation for their main season in the spring.
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