The men’s tennis team was busy this weekend, sending players to two different tournaments to close out their fall season. Select players went to play in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Central Region Championship at Washington University in St. Louis. A few of the players not participating in the ITA tournament traveled to Denison University to compete in the Big Red Invitational.
Leading the team, Luis Andres Platas ’23 and Thomas Kallarakal ’23 arrived in Missouri as the No. 11 and No. 16 seeds in the tournament, respectively. Platas noted the elevated level of play compared to the Kenyon Invitational played on Sept. 17 and 18. He made it to the round of 16 before being knocked out by the No. 1 seed in the tournament 6-4, 7-5. Kallarakal also bowed out in the round of 16, this time to the No. 5 seed, losing 6-3, 6-1.
In doubles play, Platas paired up with Eliezer Gonzalez ’26, and they were given a bye as the No. 6 seed. After winning their first match, Platas and Gonzalez fell 8-5 in the round of 16 and could not advance to the quarterfinals.
Kallarakal and his doubles partner Paulo Pocasangre ’26 did not fare much better than their teammates. Ranked as the No. 9 seed, they received a bye and advanced to the round of 16 where they lost to the No. 2 seed.
The Owls back in Ohio were not as successful as their counterparts in Missouri. Jacob Smith ’23 earned the team’s lone singles win out of eleven matches. Smith won his match 6-3, 7-5. Doubles play did not go much better for the Owls, as they posted a combined 2-5 record. Smith teamed up with Christophe Leblanc ’25 to earn an 8-3 victory, and Harshal Rukhaiyar ’24 and Aidan Biglow ’23 won by the same score. This weekend marked the last tournament of the fall season for men’s tennis. Platas felt good about the work he put in this year. “Now I have a lot of confidence and drive that I need to train harder and be ready for our spring season and make sure that the next time I face these kinds of players, I will win,” Platas wrote in an email to the Collegian. The Owls will again take flight in the spring.