Ashley Ferguson
Sports Editor
The men’s and women’s tennis teams rallied to a rousing start last Saturday and Sunday, facing off against DIII competitors. The men looked confident at the annual Oberlin Invitational, while the women saw success in Gambier at the Kenyon Invitational.
Highlights during the Oberlin tournament came from both young and seasoned players. Jorrit de Rouw ’21 joined up with Vilius Sulnis ’18 on day one, knocking out the Ohio Northern University pair of Jake Abbott ’19 and Connor Christian ’20 8-1.
De Rouw later moved into a higher level of doubles competition. He paired with Titas Bera ’18, and together they convincingly took out Case Western Reserve University, no. 4 in the region. Bera, who finished last year as the no. 11-ranked singles player in the region, helped lead the pair to their 8-3 win over Earl Hsieh ’21and Aris Jhaveri ’21.
Bera teamed up with Jesse DeWitt ’19 to play Kenyon College on the first day.
“We’ve got the best player in the conference in Titas Bera, and I’ve got to step up and support him as his doubles partner along with some other guys,” said DeWitt.
Although he is dealing with persistent elbow injuries, DeWitt said the fall season is a time to gain experience early on.
“We’ve got some freshmen that are hungry to show what they can do,” he said.
Joaquin Abos Amo ’21 proved this, winning 6-2, 6-4 against Ohio Northern’s David Hayman ’19 in singles play. De Rouw went 6-3, 2-0 before his opponent retired.
Nathan Devereux ’20 scored some integral wins for the sophomore class. In singles he won 7-6, 0-6, 10-4 against Case Western Reserve University and battled back from behind for a 2-6, 7-5, 10-8 victory over Earlham College’s Adarsh Singh ’19.
“Devereux notched two good wins, his second coming vs. last year’s Earlham no. 2 singles player and doing so in comeback fashion,” said Head Coach Zachary Hasenyager. “After falling down a set and 4-0, he rallied all the way back to win. It was another great win to a great start to the season for Nate.”
The Fighting Scots women’s tennis team attained a key win at the Kenyon Invitational from Mali Zemedkun ’20, who made it to the first-place match in singles after scoring 6-3, 6-1 over Ohio Northern’s Jordan Dodson. Joy Li ’20 dropped her first two matches in the No. 1 singles flight to take the seventh-place match by retirement, where she claimed her first set 6-3.
Morgan Wagers ’18 won her consolation match 6-2, 6-1 before faltering 1-6, 1-6 in the fifth-place match. Similarly, Kendra Devereux ’21 picked up some wins (7-5, 5-7 1-0) over Denison University’s Lucy Deal before dropping off 0-6, 0-6 in the fifth-place match.
After the first competition of the fall season, the women look forward to competing this weekend at the ITA Central Regional Tournament hosted by Oberlin College from Sept. 22-25.
The men’s team started its fall season against Walsh. After getting their feet under them against an NCAA D2 team, Hasenyager said the team looked more comfortable and confident this past weekend.
“The fall season serves as a great chance for the returners to get together again after a summer away and to introduce the freshmen to the team right away,” he said. “Our biggest event is the ITA Fall Regional to be held in Kalamazoo, Mich.”
Hasenyager feels confident about the team’s doubles performances.
“We try to put a lot of emphasis on doubles, and I’d like to think that is a strength,” he said.
“We graduated two seniors from last year’s team who had finished first team and second team All-Conference, and scored great wins over their careers.”
Hasenyager noted that, though this team is already quite strong, it will be looking to gain experience. “We are likely starting two freshmen, one sophomore and a senior who has been out for two years. We’ll be looking for great leadership from our upperclassmen to help serve as role models and examples for how they need to train, both during our season as well as during the off-season.”
Hasenyager said, “The team goal every year is to finish in the top half of the conference standings. If we do that, then we will be ranked well within the Top 20 in the region and will be bordering on the national rankings. The NCAC is arguably the fourth strongest conference in the country for tennis and moving up even one spot will be a challenge, but we want to strive high.”
DeWitt said, “Ultimately our team goals are to win as many matches as we can leading up to conferences. If we grind up until that point I really like our chances of winning matches off of the power house schools, like Kenyon and Denison, within our conference.”
Next up, the women’s team heads to Oberlin today to compete in the three-day ITA Central Regional Tournament at Oberlin. The men will head to Kalamazoo, Mich. on Sept. 29 to compete in their ITA Central Regional Tournament. The men’s team will also host a Community Tennis Social event on Oct. 5 from 4:30-