Ladies tennis team goes to nationals

For the fifteenth consecutive season, the women's tennis team qualified for competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Championship.

The Ladies won their first-round competition against Luther College, 8-1, on May 12 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. But they fell 8-1 to the home team, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, on May 13 to be eliminated from the tournament.

Currently ranked ninth in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association national poll, the Ladies punched their ticket to the big show after placing fifth at the Midwest Regional in mid-April. In that tournament, the Ladies suffered a 5-4 loss to the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, but they bounced back with 5-4 victories over Denison and Washington universities.

Toward the end of April, the Kenyon team reinforced its standing by winning the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championship for the seventh straight season. As the top seed in the conference tournament, the Ladies breezed through the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds with wins over Earlham College and Wittenberg University. In the finals, Kenyon held on to topple a strong Denison squad by a 5-3 final.

Five members of the Ladies team picked up All-NCAC honors for their play this season. Senior Sara Sanders, juniors Brooke Roeper, Lisa Beauchamp and Elly Sherman, and sophomore Katy Tucker were all voted to the post-season team by the conference coaches. The NCAC coaches also selected Kenyon's Scott Thielke, in his seventh season, as their Coach of the Year.

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