Men's tennis drop two

Tough competition for team starts early in season

The men's tennis team have come up against tough competition early in the conference season. Their matches against Kenyon College and Denison University were played well, but the competition overwhelmed them. The final scores in both matches were 0-7.

Against Kenyon the number one through four singles had tough opponents and only averaged one or two games in each set. These positions consisted of co-captain senior Koji Ebersole, senior Tony Choi, sophomore Sam Steckley and sophomore Mike O'Connell.

The number five and six positions, co-captain sophomore Peter Swendson and first-year Jon Stinson, had three-set matches against their opponents. Sophomore Eric Shin was missing against Kenyon because of a conference.

Coach Chris Barker always emphasizes the importance of winning the doubles point, which requires that Oberlin win two matches out of the three. "Against tough teams winning the doubles point is an edge because it is the first encounter with an opponent," Barker said. Second doubles, Ebersole and O'Connell, finished first with an 8-5 win while first doubles Steckley and Swendson went into a tie breaker and lost 9-8 (7-3). In third doubles Kenyon won 8-6 over junior Andy Kim and senior Tony Choi.

The Yeomen's next match was against Denison on Tuesday. The team was missing Ebersole to a graduate school appointment. The match lineup had Choi at one, Steckley at two, O'Connell at three, Swendson at four, Shin at five and Stinson at six. O'Connell said, "I played well." All the singles had tough matches.

Denison swept the doubles as well. Steckley and Swendson teamed up to lose 8-3, number two doubles O'Connell and Shin lost 8-2, and Choi and junior Andrew Kim lost 8-0.

The team is leaving to play at DePauw University in Indiana for the Great Lakes Collegiate Association tournament from Thursday to Saturday.