DANVILLE, Ky. -- The Kenyon College men's tennis team drove down to Danville, Kentucky, for an Easter Sunday matchup against Sewanee, hosted by Centre College. The dual was a back-and-forth battle between a pair of ranked teams, and the No. 22-ranked Tigers tripped up the No. 8-ranked Owls, coming back to win 4-3.

Kenyon fell to 16-4 overall this season after dropping the team's final non-conference clash of the regular season. On the other side, Sewanee improved to 15-4 in the team's regular-season finale.

The dual saw the teams go toe-to-toe up and down the lineup, and that tight competition came early and often in doubles. Kenyon secured the easiest win when Josh Finkle and Jay Kedar Dixit surged to a 6-2 victory in the No. 2 match, but the other two doubles bouts had to be decided by tiebreakers. Unfortunately for the Owls, Sewanee prevailed 7-6 in both matches to clinch the best-of-three doubles point. At No. 1, Paulo Pocasangre Kreling and Alejandro Gonzalez fell 7-4 in the tiebreaker, while Gianluca Bocanegra and Rishil Kondapaneni fell 7-2 in their tiebreaker at No. 3.

Singles play saw more of the same in terms of close contests, but the Owls pulled away with some early wins. After wins at Nos. 2, 3, and 5, Kenyon was one point away from clinching the comeback and winning the dual. Gonzalez won 6-4, 6-2 at No. 2, while Kondapaneni won with a similar 6-2, 6-4 score at No. 3. In the fifth flight, Juozas Cioladis collected a 6-3, 6-3 sweep.

Though Kenyon was in good position to pull off the comeback, Sewanee stayed within striking distance thanks to a 6-3, 6-4 win over Eric Zhang at No. 4. The dual came down to the first and last singles flights, where both the Nos. 1 and 6 matches went to a third set.

The Tigers tied the score at 3-3 after downing Rakkan Audeh 7-5, 1-6, 6-1 at No. 6, putting all the pressure on the top of the lineup. In that No. 1 match, Pocasangre Kreling started strong with a 6-4 set-one victory, but Sewanee's Jordan Theron battled back to win 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, completing the comeback for both himself and the Tigers.

Kenyon has one outing remaining before heading into the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament. The Owls will close out their regular season at home on Wednesday, April 23, when Kenyon will host Oberlin College at 4:30 p.m. at the Jasper Tennis Center.