Last Monday, the Yeomen battled the Kenyon College Lords at home. Though both teams fought hard, in the end the Lords bested the Yeomen 9–0.

In doubles play, first-year Ian Paik and junior Soren Zeliger fought for the top seat, but fell just short, losing 6–8.

Heading into the meet, the Yeomen knew they would have their hands full with a talented Kenyon team.

“The biggest challenge going into it was probably their name and history as a program, leading us to give them more respect than we should have,” Paik said. “They’re a top 15 team in the nation that has some of the best players headlining their lineup and very little drop from their 1 to 6.”

In the No. 2 match, sophomore Callan Louis and first-year Abraham Davis were beaten by the Lords 4–8. The Yeomen also fell in the No. 3 match, as the Lords’ Andrew Herring and Robert Turlington defeated senior Charlie Marks and first-year Jeremy Lichtmacher. The two were just barely outdone in a close 6–8 match.

In singles, Paik played well and fell just short to Kenyon’s Wade Heerboth. Paik had a strong showing in the first set, though he ultimately fell 6–7. Heerboth then defeated Paik more soundly in the second set, winning 2–6.

In the second seed, Louis went up against sophomore Sam Geier before eventually dropping his set 1–6.

The Yeomen dropped the remaining matches as well, but the team still feels as if it learned from the loss, and it is approaching future games with a more mature approach.

“I think the bigger changes our team has made are [in] our attitude and demeanor on court and the willingness to stay in points longer and grind out longer points and matches,” Paik said. “A lot of these changes are due to our new focuses in practice as well as having almost a full season under our belts, especially for us first-years that make up more than half the team.”

Marks agreed. “We are learning that we compete at the same level as the highest teams; the next step is believing that we can beat them as well. Allegheny will be another tough team, and our goal is to win,” he said. “After competing with many of the top teams in the country this season, we know what we are capable of, and now with the season coming to a close it’ll be fun to see where that takes us.”

The Yeomen record sits at 11–11; they will play their last conference match at Allegheny on Saturday at 4 p.m.