The Lords tennis team's dominance in the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament continued Sunday, May 1, as the 17th-ranked team in the nation won its 10th straight tournament title and 19th overall by defeating rival Denison University 5-1.
The victory assures Kenyon a berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament, which begins May 13-15.
After a couple of tough doubles matches in which the Lords won two of three, the team flexed its muscle in singles, winning in straight sets in three matches.
Kenyon attained its first match point at the second doubles flight as Michael Liu ’18 and Robert Turlington ’16 won 8-5 over Denison’s Blake Burstein and John Armstrong. Winning the next point for the Lords was duo Sam Geier ’16 and Tristan Kaye ’17. They earned an 8-6 win at No. 1 over Jackson O'Gorman-Bean and Kevin Brown.
When singles play came around, the Lords turned it up a notch on the Big Red. Geier, the top-ranked singles player in the Central region, rolled 6-3 and 6-1 at the first singles match.
Following a pair of 6-1 wins from Mike Roberts ’17 at No. 5, sophomore Max Smith ’18 clinched the match for Kenyon with a straight-sets victory at the sixth spot over Costas Alevizopoulos.
Winners of their last nine matches, the Lords will wait and see whom they will draw in the NCAA Tournament.