The Kenyon College women’s tennis team had no problems capturing their fourth consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference crown with a 6-0 win at DePauw on Saturday, May 8, in Greencastle, Indiana.
The Ladies secured a conference-record 19th overall championship.
The Ladies, ranked No. 12 nationally throughout the shortened season, improved their record to a perfect 8-0 with the win and gained the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Division III tournament.
The Ladies cruised through doubles play yielding only five games. At No. 2, Ilana Blackwood and Victoria Vasquez pitched an 8-0 shutout of Katherine Price and Kat Wilder. At No. 3, Eleni Dakos and Kayla Pukys rolled to an 8-1 triumph over Erin Friedrich and Kiley Shaw. And in the No. 1 match, Erika Oku and Daria Beshentseva defeated Amanda Showalter and Paige Bennett by an 8-4 score.
Vasquez then landed the Ladies’ first point in singles play, taking the No. 3 match against Bennett, 6-0, 6-1. That result put the Kenyon team one team point away from the conference title.
In the No. 1 and No. 2 singles matches, Oku and Beshentseva were in a race to nail down that clinching point. Beshentseva ended up edging Oku at the finish line, as she defeated Friedrich 6-2, 6-0. Oku then wrapped up the No. 1 match with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Showalter.
With the championship clinched, the other three singles matches left on the courts were halted.
Kenyon earned a bye through first-round play of the Division III women's tennis tournament and will battle either Grinnell College or Luther College in the second round. The section of the bracket in which the Ladies will work also contains teams from the University of Saint Thomas, Concordia University Wisconsin and the host of the first three rounds, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The first round is scheduled for May 13 or 14, the second round on May 14 or 15 and the third round on May 15 or 16.
MEN’S LACROSSE
Ethan Dewberry scored a pair of fourth-period goals, but Kenyon couldn’t complete the comeback and fell 12-10 at Denison in the NCAC championship game on Saturday, May 8, in Granville.
Kenyon got strong performances on both ends of the field. Joe Boesel led the team with five points on three goals and two assists. Declan Curry added two goals and two assists, while Dewbrey and Mike Matteo combined for five goals. Senior goaltender David Metzger tallied a season-high 19 saves.
Ethan Tyack had three goals and four assists to pace the Big Red, who earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament. TJ Spahn had 10 saves in goal for Denison.
Denison will face Centre College, the champions of the Southern Athletic Association, in the first round in Danville, Kentucky.
BASEBALL
Kenyon senior Patrick Craig threw his last collegiate pitches on Friday, May 7. They came in the second game of a doubleheader split and powered Kenyon to a 5-0 win over host Allegheny in NCAC play in Meadville, Pennsylvania.
Craig’s masterpiece was in response to a 13-4 loss in Game 1 for the Lords, who concluded the 2021 season with an even 7-7 overall record and a 5-7 mark in NCAC East Division play.
Craig, a southpaw, tossed five innings of Game 2 and allowed just three hits while striking out a pair. He picked up the win, which was his second of the season and the seventh of his career. The combined shutout dropped his season earned run average to 3.30 in 30 innings of work.
In terms of run support, Craig got all he needed in the second inning when Will Sturgeon led off with a single and Brent Henderson quickly doubled him home.
A big four-run sixth inning provided plenty of insurance. In that frame, Jake Brown reached base because of an Allegheny error. A double from Andrew Rabinowitz was followed by a Kyle Dwyer single that scored both Brown and Rabinowitz. Henderson added an RBI single, and Ryan Page capped the inning with a bases-loaded walk that pushed Kenyon to its final 5-0 advantage.
In Game 1, Luke Chutko had three hits and drove in two runs, and Tyler Hettich hit a two-run home run for the Gators, who put it away with a six-run fourth inning.
In both games combined, Henderson, Rabinowitz and Dwyer had three hits. Sturgeon had two hits and scored three runs.
