Men’s Tennis Seventh in NCAC
BY IAN HAYNES

After the women’s tennis team finished in an impressive third place in the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships two weekends ago, it was the men’s team turn last weekend to try and raise the bar.
Despite strong efforts from the young team, the Oberlin men’s tennis team struggled to string victories together, and finished seventh out of eight teams in the NCAC Championships. Oberlin hosted the event, which featured a field of seven teams instead of eight, because the Ohio Wesleyan men’s team opted not to attend the championships. Wesleyan’s players voted by a majority not to compete because of conflicts created in their schedule due to finals.
In the first day of competition on Friday, Oberlin took on Denison, who eventually became conference champions. In first doubles, seniors Ben Fox and Mike Shelton lost 8-4, while the second and third doubles teams made up of first-year Marian Bocek and sophomores Ashvin Raj, Matt Fairbanks and Matt Issacs, respectively, both lost 8-0.

Denison jumped out to an early 1-0 lead going into singles play and quickly ended the play-to-decision match when Raj, who was playing fourth singles, Fairbanks, who was playing fifth singles and Issacs, who was playing sixth singles, all lost. Fox, at first singles, Shelton, at second singles, and Bocek, at third singles, did not finish their matches.
“Fox and Shelton were both playing well in their matches, but were unable to finish them,” Head Coach Don Hunsinger said.
After the loss to Denison, the Yeomen took on Wabash College in the second match on Friday.

First-year Jamie Frankel, who led the team in victories going into the tournament with an 8-4 record at first singles, played in his first match in over a month and teamed up with Fairbanks to win third doubles by a score of 8-2. Oberlin still lost the doubles point though, as the first and second doubles teams fell 8-3 and 8-5, respectively.
In singles, Frankel, Shelton and Raj did not finish their matches because Fox, Bocek and Fairbanks lost in the play-to-decision match.
“Frankel played ok for being rusty,” Hunsinger said. “[Tennis] is just like any other sport — you can’t play well without practice.”
Playing third singles, Shelton was ready to close out his match when the Yeomen lost. “Shelton played really well and was about to win when the match ended,” Hunsinger said.
Due to Ohio Wesleyan’s absence from competition, Oberlin won their match on Saturday by default.

Oberlin finished the tournament in seventh place and also finished seventh in the final conference standings.
Concerning the team’s performance in the tournament, Hunsinger said, “The tournament went very well. We had some great matches and good weather.”
For the fifth year in a row, Denison University won the conference title. Kenyon College took second place, followed by Wittenberg University and The College of Wooster. Allegheny College placed fifth, while Wabash College, Oberlin and Ohio Wesleyan rounded out the last three places.