Ladies
Ladies tennis dominated another match this past Sunday, pushing their season record to 3-0. Facing off against the No. 25 ranked DePauw Tigers, No. 30 Kenyon brought home an 8-1 win. The last time these two teams met was in last year’s North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championships, where the Ladies pulled out a 5-4 win.
An early loss in doubles play was the only match the Ladies lost in the whole competition. In the No. 1 doubles slot, Diana Aboubakare ’18 and Erika Oku ’21 came back from a 5-2 gap to win 8-6. Ceylan Can ’21 and Ilana Blackwood ’21 continued the winning trend with a 8-5 victory in the No. 3 spot.
With a 2-1 lead, the Ladies began singles play. They swept the entire field by winning every singles match in the competition. At No. 2, Oku increased Kenyon’s lead with a 6-3, 6-0 win. Grace Winslow ’18 and Maggie Sweeney ’19 solidified the Ladies’ match win with scores of 6-4, 6-4 and 6-4, 6-1, respectively.
Annie Reiner ’19 continued the winning streak at No. 6 with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 win. Aboubakare ’18 cemented the Ladies’ command of the match with a 6-4, 6-4 win at the No. 1 slot.
“We went in with the mentality that we were going to have to fight for it, especially because of our close win for the Conference Championship last year,” Aboubakare said. “I think the whole team played really well and showed up this weekend.”
Kenyon’s next match is against Centre College on their home court this Saturday morning.
Lords
Lords tennis, ranked No. 25 in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III, came away this weekend with two consecutive wins on the road. On Saturday, Kenyon prevailed with a 8-1 score on Wabash College’s home court. On Sunday, the Lords swept the DePauw Tigers with a 9-0 win in Indiana. The win against DePauw was Kenyon’s ninth straight time triumphing over the Tigers.
The first match win of the weekend came from doubles team Bryan Yoshino ’21 and Michael Liu ’18, winning 8-4. Sophomores Austin Diehl and Jacob Zalenski followed suit with a 8-5 win. The only loss of the entire weekend for the Lords came from the doubles team at No. 1.
“The best part of the weekend for us was doubles,” Diehl ’20 said. “We won five of six doubles matches on the weekend which is good for us, regardless of the competition because doubles is normally our weakness.”
The Lords breezed by singles play, sweeping Wabash and DePauw in all 12 singles matches this weekend. At Wabash, Nicholas Paolucci ’19 led the winning streak with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 3. Diehl followed with 6-2, 6-3, and Zalenski would capture the winning point for the Lords on Saturday with a 6-4, 6-7 (7-9), 6-3 win at No. 1. Yoshina, Liu and Weston Noall ’18 continued the trend with dominant wins in each of their matches.
At DePauw, Kenyon continued to cruise in singles play starting with Noall’s 6-0, 6-0 shutout win at No. 6. At No. 2, Diehl won 6-3, 6-1 and Zalenski won with the same score at No. 1. Liu, Paolucci and Yoshino sealed the deal with their respective wins at the No. 5, No. 1 and No. 4, spots respectively.
The Lords will next head to Florida between March 12 and 15 to compete against Millsaps College, East Texas Baptist University, University of Rochester, University of Saint Francis and Stevens Institute of Technology.