Owls crack Top-10, prep for NCAC Tournament

4/23/2026 2:00:00 PM

GAMBIER, Ohio -- The Kenyon College men's tennis team, which just completed its 2025-26 regular-season schedule with a 20-3 record, moved up to the No. 9 position in the most recent NCAA Division III poll released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

The Owls will take that ranking and record into this weekend's six-team North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament, whose winner gains the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Kenyon's only conference loss this season was against Denison University, defending national champion and currently ranked at No. 3 in the ITA poll. With Denison winning the NCAC regular-season title, the Big Red earned the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, which they will host over the next three days.

Friday's NCAC Tournament quarterfinal matches at Denison will feature No. 4-seeded DePauw University versus No. 5 Wabash College and No. 3-seeded Oberlin College versus No. 6 The College of Wooster. On Saturday, the Owls begin play in the semifinal round against the winner of the Oberlin and Wooster match. That Owls' semifinal match will be played at Denison with a start time of 1:30 p.m.

Denison will host the other semifinal match at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The two winners of the semifinal matches will return to Denison's courts on Sunday at noon for the tournament's championship match.

Denison has won the last six NCAC regular-season titles with Kenyon taking the previous 13 titles, dating back to 2007. The two teams have battled in the NCAC championship match for the last six times, with Denison owning a 4-2 edge in those matches.

Kenyon's 20 wins are the best single-season tally the program has produced since the 2017-18 team concluded its season with a 20-5 mark. The Owls started out this calendar year with a No. 13 rank from the ITA. They slipped to No. 14 on March 25, but have since improved. Moving to No. 11 the first week of April, to No. 10 over the last two weeks, and now to No. 9 as they head into the postseason.

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