CLEVELAND, Ohio – The No. 11-ranked Kenyon College men's tennis team saw its seven-match winning streak come to an end Friday afternoon, falling 5-2 to No. 6 Case Western Reserve University in a neutral-site matchup at the Medical Mutual Tennis Center on the campus of Cleveland State University.
The loss moves the Owls to 16-2 overall while maintaining their unbeaten mark in conference play at 4-0 in the North Coast Athletic Conference. Case Western improved to 20-5 with the victory.
Kenyon battled early in doubles play, but the Spartans claimed the opening point with wins across all three courts. At No. 1 doubles, the Owl pairing of
Juozas Cioladis and
Maximo Llamas Castellanos dropped a 6-3 decision to Bryce Ware and Trey Lambright, marking the duo's first loss of the season as a tandem. Case Western also secured a 7-5 decision at the No. 2 spot, where
Paulo Pocasangre Kreling and
Jay Kedar Dixit pushed Santiago Salazar Garza and Leon Chen deep before dropping the contest. The closest match came on court three, where
Alejandro Gonzalez and
Eliezer Gonzalez fought through a pair of tiebreak set but ultimately fell 7-6 (7-3).
The Owls responded in singles play behind a strong performance from Pocasangre Kreling at the No. 3 position. The senior secured the team's first point with a straight-sets victory, defeating Anmay Devaraj 6-3, 6-2.
Case Western countered with three singles wins to clinch the match. At No. 4 singles, Ansh Shah topped Cioladis 6-2, 6-1, while Rowan Matorin earned another point with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over
Stylianos Papamichael at the No. 6 spot. Jon Totorica sealed the dual for the Spartans with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Dixit at No. 5 singles.
Two other singles matches continued despite the match being decided. At No. 2 singles, Llamas Castellanos picked up a straight-sets victory, defeating Matthew Plunkett 7-5, 6-2. Meanwhile,
Alejandro Gonzalez battled through a three-set match at the top court but ultimately fell to Salazar Garza 6-7 (5), 6-1, 10-8 in a super tiebreak.
Kenyon will look to quickly rebound as the Owls return to conference action in less than 24 hours. The team travels to face Oberlin College on Saturday, with first serve scheduled for 12:00 p.m. in North Coast Athletic Conference play.
