Skip To Main Content

Kenyon College Athletics

Paulo Pocasangre Kreling
Evan Brinnon
0
Haverford College HAVM (16-6)
4
Winner Kenyon College KENM (19-5)
Haverford College HAVM
(16-6)
0
Final
4
Kenyon College KENM
(19-5)
Winner

Match Recap: Men's Tennis |

Owls finish off Fords in NCAA second-round match

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- With a convincing 4-0 victory over No. 16 Haverford College on Saturday afternoon, the No. 13 Kenyon College Owls cruised through second-round play of the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championship and collected their first NCAA Championship win since the 2019 season.

The Owls, who topped the Fords on Case Western Reserve University's Carlton Courts, will return to the same site Sunday at noon to face the host and No. 5-ranked Spartans in the third round. The winner of that match will be one of eight teams that advances to the Championship's final site, the Biszantz Family Tennis Center in Claremont, California.

Kenyon (19-5) and Case (26-5) faced off earlier this season. The two teams met in Orlando, Florida on March 12. Kenyon was ranked No. 16 at the time and Case, which escaped with a narrow 4-3 win, was ranked No. 5.

Setting the stage for Sunday's showdown, the Owls made quick work of the Fords on Saturday. The Kenyon men rang up a pair of 6-1 wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles to claim an early 1-0 team lead. Paulo Pocasangre Kreling and Alejandro Gonzalez collected the Kenyon win at No. 1, while Josh Finkle and Eric Zhang did the same at No. 2.

In singles play, Pocasangre Kreling, a junior, did not let up. He tacked Kenyon's second team point on the board after posting a 6-1, 6-2 win over Marko Arboleda in the No. 1 match. That moved his overall season record to 20-7 and left the Owls needing just two wins in the remaining five singles matches.

The first of those two wins came from Gonzalez, a sophomore. He came through with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over James McKenzie in the No. 2 singles match. That was Gonzalez's sixth straight singles win, all in straight sets, and improved his personal record to a team-best 21-6.

The clinching point for Kenyon came from senior Rakkan Audeh. He tallied a 6-2, 6-2 win against Chaitanya Krishna in the No. 6 match while running his overall season record to 11-5.

The loss brought an end to Haverford's season and finalized its record at 16-6.

Case, which awaits Kenyon, made it to the third round after defeating Whitman College, 5-0, in the second round.

 
Print Friendly Version