WQIO Ohio's Super Station
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The Kenyon College women’s tennis team took a trip up north to Kalamazoo College, the site of this season’s Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) NCAA Division III Central Regional Championship. The Owls played two days at Kalamazoo’s Stowe Stadium, and Kenyon ended its fall season by advancing to the round of 16 in both the singles and doubles brackets.
On the singles side, Shadia Amado Aguad advanced the furthest for the Owls. The junior, who was seeded ninth, had a bye in the opening round of 128, and she cruised through the round of 64 with a 6-0, 6-3 win over a familiar foe in Denison University’s Maia Nowicki on Friday. Amado Aguad started Saturday with a three-set battle in the round of 32, outlasting 17-seeded Emily Chiasson, who hailed from Washington University in St. Louis, 7-5, 6-7 (1-7), 10-7. The victory put Amado Aguad on a crash course against No.5-seeded Lily McCloskey of Case Western Reserve University, but she was unable to keep Kenyon in the singles bracket as she fell 6-0, 6-0 to close the team’s time at the ITAs.
Amado Aguad was also one of four Owls to advance to the round of 16 in doubles play. Pairing with first-year Hana Nouaime, the No. 9-seeded duo had a first-round bye before winning 8-2 against Sophia Pischalko and Shannon Dudy of St. Mary’s College (IN) in the round of 32. Amado Aguad and Nouaime matched up against a No. 3-seeded duo from Case Western Reserve, where McCloskey and Katalina Wang won 8-2.
The other Owls duo to progress past the round of 32 included Ana Brand and Clare Hudson. The unseeded Kenyon pairing beat the John Carroll University team of Sarah Sgambati and Felicity Kolb 8-1 before upsetting the No. 9-seeded pairing of Asha Shukla and Anna Kan, more opponents from Case, with an 8-6 victory. Brand and Hudson could not add another upset on Saturday morning, falling 8-4 against the No. 1-seeded duo of Sylwia Mikos and Oliwia Mikos from the University of Chicago.
Lalasa Nagireddy and Maggie Shope formed Kenyon’s third doubles duo. The pair advanced to the round of 32 after a dominant 8-1 win over the Hanover College duo of Camellia Crist and Annamarie Stogsdill, but they could not join the other Owls pairings to secure a spot in Saturday’s action after falling 8-4 against Hope College’s Sullivan Moran and Amanda Lopykinski.
In singles play, Brand, Hudson, Nagireddy, and Nouaime all went 1-1 on the weekend while Shope fell in her first-round match. Brand and Nagireddy were both No. 17 seeds and had first-round byes and advanced to the round of 32, while Hudson and Nouaime won in the round of 128 before falling in the round of 64.
After hosting the Kenyon Invitational and playing in the ITA Central Regional Championship this fall, the Owls will have to wait until the next calendar year for the team’s next contest. Kenyon opens 2025 with a scrimmage against Tiffin University on January 25 before playing two matchups in Indianapolis, Indiana against WashU and UChicago for the season’s first duals on February 1 and 2.
