A rare Sunday evening match at Jasper Tennis Center concluded with a lopsided 9-0 victory for the Kenyon College men’s tennis team, which dominated the visiting Hornets of Kalamazoo College. A day earlier, at the Jasper, the Kenyon College women’s tennis team fell to the Southwestern University Pirates, 5-2.
In the Sunday men’s match, Rishil Kondapaneni set the tone early, both in singles and doubles play, for the Lords. He began the evening paired with Eric Zhang in the No. 3 doubles match. The Kenyon pairing cruised to an 8-2 win, putting Kenyon’s first team point on the board.
In singles, Kondapaneni played at the No. 2 spot and whipped through a 6-2, 6-2 win over Casey Johnson. In the No.1 singles bout, Kenyon’s Luis Andres Platas put together a solid 6-4, 6-2 victory over Ian Yi. Earlier, Platas teamed with Thomas Kallarakal to post an 8-6 win against Yi and Peter Fitzgerald in the No. 1 doubles match. The match clincher belonged to Kallarakal by taking No. 3 singles over Gabe Vidinas 6-3, 6-2.
The other three singles wins for Kenyon were registered by Zhang at No. 4 and Henry Wessel at No. 6. Rakkan Audeh then finished the evening and sealed the shutout with a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 5.
On Saturday, Southwestern claimed two of the three doubles matches to start the day. Kenyon’s lone doubles match victory came from Daria Beshentseva and Eleni Dakos, who defeated Nina Mitrofanova and Lydia Lee in a tightly contested No. 1 doubles matchup, 8-4.
In singles play, Southwestern needed three sets in three of the four matches to secure the victory. Beshentseva defeated Mitrofanova in the No. 1 singles spot, 6-2, 6-4. The rest of the match went to Pirates netters.
