Owls beat Beavers to start trip out West

Box Score PASADENA, Calif. – This afternoon, the Kenyon College men's tennis team began its spring break trip out West to California, where the team will play six matches in nine days. In the first of those matches, the Owls took on the #18 Caltech Beavers.

In a tightly contested match that came down to the last two pairings, Kenyon came away victorious, winning 5-4 against Caltech.

The Owls handled business early in the doubles portion of the day winning two out of three matchups. Despite the No. 2 duo of Christophe Leblanc and Gianluca Bocanegra falling 8-3 to start, the No. 1 team of Paulo Pocasangre Kreling and Eliezer Gonzalez topped the Beavers No. 1 team 8-6. Shortly after the No. 1 match concluded, Alejandro Gonzalez and Eric Zhang turned in an 8-4 winner to give Kenyon an edge after the doubles matches.

Kenyon was in an 0-2 hole early to start singles play, as the first two finishes saw the Beavers come out on top with Gonzalez and Zhang bested in two sets in the No. 4 and No. 6 matches respectively.

One minute after the conclusion of those matches, Bocanegra found a win in two sets in the No. 5 match to give the Owls the first singles victory of the day, winning 6-1 and 6-4. Pocasangre Kreling was next to finish for Kenyon, winning the No. 1 singles match in straight sets 6-3 and 6-1. After the early doubles wins and breaking even in the singles, Kenyon was up 4-3 with two matches still in play.

Both No. 2 and No. 3 singles matches went to a third set and eclipsed two hours in length, but the Owls were able to get the lone win they needed to pick up the team's third win of the season. Although Rishil Kondapaneni came up just short in the No. 2 match, Gonzalez took home the No. 3 match for Kenyon with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 win to give Kenyon a 5-4 win.

The Owls' record moves to 3-1 on the season with the win. The team is back in action tomorrow to take on #35 Chapman University at 4:00 pm EST (1:00 pm PST) from Orange, California.

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Players Mentioned

Rishil Kondapaneni: Sophomore

Christophe Leblanc: Sophomore

Eric Zhang: Sophomore

Eliezer Gonzalez: First-Year

Paulo Pocasangre Kreling: First-Year

Gianluca Bocanegra: First-Year

Alejandro Gonzalez: First-Year

Players Mentioned

Rishil Kondapaneni
: Sophomore

Christophe Leblanc
: Sophomore

Eric Zhang
: Sophomore

Eliezer Gonzalez
: First-Year

Paulo Pocasangre Kreling
: First-Year

Gianluca Bocanegra
: First-Year

Alejandro Gonzalez
: First-Year