Men’s Tennis Challenges Nationally Ranked Teams

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Junior Soren Zeliger serves the ball in a match earlier this season. The men’s tennis team finished 3–4 in its spring break matches.

Lillian Jahan

The men’s tennis team faced seven teams in as many days during its spring break, finishing with a 3–4 record.

They started things off in Hilton Head, SC, with a 9–0 loss to the Colby College Mules. Despite the loss, Head Coach Eric Ishida was still proud of his team’s effort in the match.

“I’m proud of the way our guys played against a tough Colby team,” he said. Despite over half the team falling ill due to food poisoning, the Yeomen hung tough with the top 25-ranked Mules.

The closest the Yeomen came to winning a match that day was at the No. 2 spot, where the duo of first-year Abraham Davis and sophomore Callan Louis led 5–3 in an 8–8 tie break. Unfortunately, Louis, who was one of the victims of food poisoning, was unable to finish the match.

“I don’t know how, but we ended up two points away from winning the match when, after nearly two hours, Cal finally threw up all over the court and had to go to the ER,” Davis said. “We had to default, but I think long-term it will be a good experience because he showed me and the team that he would go to his limit to win.”

The next day, the Yeomen got vengeance for the previous day’s beatdown as they easily beat the North Central College Cardinals 9–0 in their morning session. The team got singles victories from first-years Paul Farah and Lucas Brown, as well as from sophomore Brandon McKenna.

The Yeomen later finished the trip with a decisive 9–0 win over Buena Vista University. The No. 2 duo of Louis and Davis again played well, picking up an easy 8–0 win, and were then followed by a 6–0, 6–0 win from McKenna. Oberlin also saw singles victories from Farah, Brown and sophomore Parker Oka-Wong.

The team finally headed back to Ohio for one final win last Sunday against conference foe The College of Wooster. In the 8–1 victory, the Yeomen swept the doubles matches.

“I really feel like everyone pushed their game to a new level, and we brought a ton of energy on a consistent day-to-day basis while playing well against some of the best competition the country has to offer,” McKenna said. “This week really showed us that we can compete with some of the top teams and [gave] us great confidence as both a team and individuals that I hope will serve as a catalyst for success down the home stretch of this year.”

The Yeomen, whose record now sits at 10–8, will host Case Western Reserve University at 2 p.m. and Denison University at 1 p.m. on Friday, April 4 and Saturday, April 5, respectively.