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GRANVILLE, Ohio — The Kenyon College women’s tennis team plunged into the heart of its North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) slate on Wednesday evening. The No. 26-ranked Owls faced a difficult opponent in No. 29-ranked Denison University, but Kenyon dominated the Big Red on the road and earned an impressive 6-1 victory to get back in the win column and keep the Owls in the driver’s seat as the team seeks a third straight NCAC Championship.
The win marked the second time that Kenyon has beaten a ranked opponent this season, and it helped the Owls snap a tough two-game skid that saw the team fall in a pair of close battles against teams ranked No. 16 and No. 15. Kenyon improved to 9-5 overall and stayed unbeaten in two NCAC clashes, while Denison fell to 9-6 after dropping their first conference matchup.
The conference rivals battled in doubles, but Kenyon landed the first blow when Shadia Amado Aguad and Clare Hudson landed a 6-3 win at No. 2. The other two matches wrapped up at nearly the same time, and while the home team took the No. 3 bout, Kenyon’s No. 1 duo of Eleni Lazaridou and Hana Nouaime clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 victory in the top match.
When the dual flipped to singles play, the Owls raced out to three wins to clinch the overall victory at 4-0. Just like she did in doubles, Hudson helped Kenyon get going quickly, whipping up a speedy 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 4. Lazaridou followed up with a big win in the No. 1 bout, fighting for a 7-6 (7-5) first-set win before clinching the sweep with a 6-2 set-two final.
Kenyon needed just one more win to secure the dual, and Amado Aguad delivered the clinching blow by outlasting her opponent in the second flight. Amado Aguad took the first set 7-5 before falling 6-3 in set two, but the junior got back on track with a 6-2 third-set win.
Denison prevented a sweep with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 comeback against Ana Brand at No. 3, but the Owls kept adding on over the final two matches. Nouaime notched the team’s fifth point in the No. 5 match, where she posted the dual’s largest margin of victory with a 6-2, 6-1 sweep. Lalasa Nagireddy capped the big win in the No. 6 spot, scoring Kenyon’s sixth point with a 6-2, 6-4 triumph.
After the dominant road victory, the Owls return home for a busy three-dual weekend. Kenyon starts the stretch by welcoming Wittenberg University on Friday, April 11, at 1 p.m. before hosting Ohio Wesleyan University on Saturday, April 12, and Oberlin College on Sunday, April 13. Saturday’s matchup will include Senior Day celebrations for Nagireddy, the team’s lone senior.
