Returning to action for the first time since the fall, the Kenyon College men’s and women’s tennis teams were prefect as both squads dominated the DePauw University Tigers, 9-0, during play Sunday, Feb. 6, in the Jasper Tennis Center.
The Ladies, ranked first in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) preseason poll, started the romp with the doubles team of Eleni Dakos and Anna Winslow winning 8-1 followed by another 8-1 doubles victory by Daria Beshentseva and Victoria Vasquez. In the final doubles match, Lalasa Nagireddy and Erika Pontillo took down Kiley Shaw and Kate Stanley for an 8-5 win.
With the Ladies up 3-0 after the doubles action, Winslow wasted no time adding another win to Kenyon’s total. The senior easily took her singles match 6-0, 6-1. Nagireddy followed Winslow with a 6-0, 6-0 singles victory, sealing the opening win for the Ladies. Playing out the rest of the matches, Beshentseva won her singles match 6-0, 6-4 while Dakos won her match 6-2, 6-0. Pontillo (6-2, 6-1) and Catriona MacIntosh (6-1, 6-4) finished off the clean sweep of the Tigers.
On the men’s side, the Lords opened with three tight wins in doubles play. Angelo Vidal and Eric Zhang held on for an 8-6 victory at No. 3, while Christophe Leblanc and Rishil Kondapaneni crafted an 8-5 win at No. 2. The doubles sweep was completed when Luis Andres Platas and Thomas Kallarakal pulled out an 8-4 win at No. 1 against DePauw’s team of Wyatt Metzger and Thomas Partridge.
Platas, Kallarakal and Zhang all went on to win their singles matches as well. Kallarakal defeated Gordoan Bruns, 6-0, 6-2 in the No. 3 match. That gave Kenyon a 4-0 team lead. Platas then clinched the Kenyon victory by taking down Partridge, 6-2, 6-0, at No. 1.
Zhang was involved in the closest match of the day, as he dealt with Cole Metzger in the No. 4 match. Tied 6-6 in the first set, Zhang rattled off six straight points in the tie-breaker, only to have Metzger return fire with six of his own. After the quick break and change of sides, Zhang got the two points necessary to take the set. He then held on for a 6-4 win in the second set to take the match.
Kenyon’s other singles-match winners were Jack Wagner at No. 5 by a 6-1, 6-0 score and Henry Wessel at No. 6 by a 6-4, 6-3 count.
