GRANVILLE, Ohio–The Kenyon College men’s tennis team moved on to the North Coast Athletic Conference Championship with a 5-2 win over DePauw University to increase its season record to 13-7.
The joy lasted one day as the Lords faced off against Denison on Sunday. In a competitive North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament Championship, the Kenyon College men's tennis team fell to Denison University, 5-3. All but one singles match needed three sets to determine the conference champion in Granville.
The Big Red wasted no time getting on the board as Denison's No. 1 doubles team of Timmy Cianciola and Jack Bulger defeated Christian Picot and Christophe Leblanc, 8-2. At the third doubles spot, Marc-Lennart Harms and Blake Eason took down Rishil Kondapaneni and Thomas Kallarakal with an 8-3 scoreline. Kenyon was able to salvage a win at No. 2 doubles from Luis Andres Platas and Eric Zhang, who edged out Andy Mackler and Colin Gramley, 8-5.
Cianciola notched the first win for Denison on the singles side, defeating Platas 6-3, 6-4 at No. 1. At fifth singles, Rakkan Audeh narrowed the gap with a 0-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Mackler. The Big Red secured their fourth point at the No. 4 singles spot as Ryan Patrick won the tiebreaker, 7-5, against Zhang in the third set. Zhang, who clinched the semifinal win for the Lords over DePauw, won the first set 6-1 before Patrick came back in the second set to win 6-3.
Kondapaneni responded to Patrick's win with a win of his own. The Lords No. 2 singles player needed three sets to come out on top of Bulger, 6-0, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4. Needing just one win to hold off the Lords and secure the conference title, Harms took down Kallarakal 6-7 (0-7), 6-4, 6-2.
The Lords finished the regular season with an overall record of 13-8 and await possible seeding for the NCAA championships.
