Kenyon men claim spot in NCAC final

Box Score GRANVILLE, Ohio -- Saturday afternoon's 5-0 win over Oberlin College thrust the Kenyon College men's team through the semifinal round and into the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament's championship match.

The No. 24-ranked Owls, who are the tournament's No. 2-seeded team, improved their overall record to 14-7 with the win. Oberlin, which upset DePauw University in the quarterfinals, was the tournament's No. 6-seeded team and finished its season with an 8-12 record.

Sunday's championship match will be held on the campus of Denison University, the tournament host. Denison, ranked at No. 9 nationally, is the tournament's No. 1 seed and, after defeating No. 4-seeded Wabash College in the semifinal, will face Kenyon in Sunday's finale, which is slated for a noon start.

Against Oberlin, Kenyon saw the No. 3 doubles pairing of Alejandro Gonzalez and Eliezer Gonzalez roll to an 8-0 victory against Oberlin's duo of James Foster and Benjamin Tichauer.

The Kenyon doubles sweep was completed when Rishil Kondapaneni and Eric Zhang posted an 8-2 win at No. 2 doubles and then Paulo Pocasangre Kreling and Christophe Leblanc recorded another 8-2 win in the No. 1 match.

That left just two more team points for Kenyon to secure to win the semifinal. Eliezer Gonzalez got the first of those two by winning his No. 5 singles match, 6-2, 6-1 against Tichauer. Rakkan Audeh then clinched the final result with a 6-0, 6-1 victory against Foster in the No. 6 singles match.

Sunday's championship battle between Kenyon and Denison will be the fifth consecutive season (excluding the pandemic-shortened seasons) the two have played for the conference title and the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

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Players Mentioned

Rakkan Audeh: Junior

Eliezer Gonzalez: Sophomore

Rishil Kondapaneni: Junior

Christophe Leblanc: Junior

Paulo Pocasangre Kreling: Sophomore

Eric Zhang: Junior

Alejandro Gonzalez: First-Year

Players Mentioned

Rakkan Audeh
: Junior

Eliezer Gonzalez
: Sophomore

Rishil Kondapaneni
: Junior

Christophe Leblanc
: Junior

Paulo Pocasangre Kreling
: Sophomore

Eric Zhang
: Junior

Alejandro Gonzalez
: First-Year