2019 Season Preview: #12 Kenyon Lords

Location: Gambier, Ohio

Coach: Scott Thielke

ITA National Ranking: 14

ITA Regional Ranking: 4

Blog Power Ranking: 12

Twitter Handle: @KenyonMTEN

UTR Power 6: 68

Kenyon 2018 Spring Season tl;dr: Kenyon ended 20-5 with another obstacle-free NCAC conference championship added to their trophy case. They suffered three 4-5 losses (Northwestern Ohio, Mary Wash, and CMU), but they avenged their loss to Mary Wash in the NCAA tournament (5-3) and their Northwestern Ohio loss this past week. Their season ended with a blip as they slipped quietly into the postseason with a lackluster performance against Wash U. Individually, Austin Diehl emerged as an immovable force for the Lords and Jake Zalenski qualified for NCAAs. While, Nick Paolucci remained very tall and Bryan Yoshino rose far above his fellow underclassmen. Michael Liu, Weston Noall, and Alex Rieger time as (active) Lords has ended and now their (alumni) watch begins. 

Kenyon projected lineup: 

This is the lineup they used to start the year against Northwestern Ohio; Thielke’s going with some classic senior-deference to start the year with Barrett and Doroskevic playing over Lee, Wagner, and Vidal. Kenyon has a clear gap between the top three and the rest of their lineup. Zalenski, Diehl, and Paolucci are NCAA Elite-Eight caliber (which is one of their team goals this season) singles players, so they’ll be expected to carry Kenyon’s weight of expectations. Oh Lordy…now that it’s all written down, this Kenyon team is old, experienced, and quite possible the best Kenyon team (compared to their relative competition because that 2012 team would smack up on this team) since the #GambierGang had the likes of Burgin, Williams, Ye, Razumovksy, Geier, Kaye, Rosensteel, Thrailkill, Turlington, Huber, and Heerboth.

1 Singles: Jake Zalenski (3rd Year, 11.83 UTR)   

The Fearhand of Gambier. Zalenski won NCAC newcomer of the year and hasn’t looked back since. He qualified for Individuals last year, and his success at 1 made it nearly possible for Diehl to qualify for Individuals out of 2 spot for a team outside the top 10. Zalenski slaps. He can take any forehand, at any time and rifle it through the court – that skill alone has made Zalenksi a national entity, but his game’s more nuanced than that. He’s a solid spot server and his backhand scoffs at the notion it’s a liability. Zalenski’s proven himself at the top and Thielke has formulated a favorable schedule that could get him back to Individuals. Also his new partnership with Yoshino at 1 puts him on the radar to qualify for doubles as well (If Chicago doesn’t qualify three, and Wash U gets Kozlowski in)

2 Singles: Austin Diehl (3rd Year, 12.23 UTR) – He aite.

3 Singles: Nick Paoucci (4th Year, 11.29 UTR) 

Few players can take the racket out of your hand, and even fewer can do it at 3 singles. Paolucci’s game, when it’s on, is entirely capable of suffocating his opponent and preventing them from doing much of anything; forcing them to ride the Pucc Train til their exit. Paolucci has had experience up and down this lineup, but he seems to have found comfort here in the third spot. Paolucci will use his penetrating groundstrokes, booming serve, and aloof attitude to be a fully-fledged member of this triumvirate. Paolucci will be looked to as a senior leader on this team, especially towards the end of the year because he’s still far and away the most experienced Lord on the roster.

4 Singles: Bryan Yoshino (2nd Year, 10.99 UTR) 

Kenyon’s best freshmen from last year has made big strides from just a year ago. Yoshino found success throughout the year and grew into one of Kenyon’s most promising stars despite not being able to crack an egg with his shots. Yoshino has grown in both experience and stature, and his game is reflecting it – he’s doing everything better now, per sources. Yoshino is channeling his inner Thiem or perhaps Paire with his hair choice right now, and if he starts coming over his backhand with actual pace (not like last year) like Thiem or Paire then woo! woo! woo! woo! the Lords just got a fourth great player. 

5 Singles: Henry Barrett (4th Year, 9.95 UTR) & 6 Singles: Anatol Doroskevic (4th Year, 10.19 UTR) 

Both of these seniors find themselves in the lineup for, more or less, the first times in their career. While it could be chalked up to it being Northwestern Ohio, but I’ll give Barrett and Doroskevic more credit than that. While I think that some combination of Lee, Wagner and Vidal will eventually mix in here, Barrett and Doroskevic hold it down currently. College tennis is a different animal and each season of matches and practice helps a player grow into a better version of themselves, so their experience does mean something. If nothing else, it’s a testament to their years of hard work to grow into players that are worthy of starting as seniors. With coaches always trying to replace all of their starters every recruiting cycle with better and better players, it’s incredibly admirable to see players develop at school from non-starters to starters. Cheers to Barrett and Doroskevic, you’ve earned it. 

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Next Up: Pascal Lee (1st Year, 10.85 UTR); Jack Wagner (1st Year, 10.78 UTR); Angelo Vidal (1st Year, 9.03 UTR)

Doubles Outlook:

Historically, Kenyon doubles has been characterized, rightfully or not, as “Two Guys hanging out at the baseline three feet apart because they’re not fans of the net”. Zalenski and Diehl rode this wave to great success at 2 doubles last year, as Kenyon employed the ‘1 and 2 singles players at 2 doubles’ NCAC special. Thielke has opted to split the two juniors this year as Zalenski moves to 1 doubles with Yoshino. I’d set the line of how many different doubles teams that Thielke utilizes this year at 9.5 teams, I think that Thielke will miss being able to sacrifice 1 dubs with Noall and Rieger to bolster 2 and 3, but this years Kenyon’s doubles figures to be more even 1-3 with Zalenski, Diehl, and presumably Paolucci each pillaring one of those spots.

Schedule Analysis:

If Kenyon’s schedule were a meal it would be headlined by their Spring Break trip to Florida. The Lords will play: Coe (3.7), Wesleyan (3.10), Amherst (3.11), Case (3.13), Millsaps (14), and Trinity TX (3.15) – with the bolded matches as ones with big national or regional implications (Coe too, if only because their margin of loss could be compared against Denison, Oberlin, OWU, etc. for Regional Rankings). Each of the bolded matches will likely get their own preview but a cursory look at these matches makes me believe that Kenyon will leave Floria with tans and wins over Coe, Case, Millsaps, and Trinity TX. I think that the NESCAC representatives: Wesleyan and Amherst will insulate their Pool C hopes with victories over Kenyon. I think Amherst will have an easier time than Wesleyan, but both will win no worse than 6-3. I also predict that Case will lead 2-1 after doubles (as fate would have it) and the match will find itself at 3-3 with Concannon, Kanam, and a TBD (though it’ll probably be Case King: Stroup) still on court to decide it. 

The amuse-bouche of this schedule is the Mary Washington Invitational, where Kenyon will begin with Sewanee, UMW, and Stevens. Kenyon defeated Sewanee to salvage their Mary Wash Invite last year (5-3), but had a so-so Invite last season when they came away with an L to the host team. Kenyon righted the ship and got their revenge against Mary Wash in the opening round of NCAAs. This time around I expect Kenyon to saunter into Virginia, mess around a bit, and walk out with 3 wins. There’s one thing to note – Kenyon is slated to play Sewanee at 9 AM on Feb 23, swiftly followed by Mary Wash at 3 PM. That back to back could make the both matches hairier than need be: (1) Kenyon has an absolute battle with Sewanee and their performance against Mary Wash suffers, or (2) Kenyon looks forward to Round 3 with Mary Wash and gets off to a slow start against Sewanee that makes their first performance suffer. Coach Thielke will have to make use of his depth and keep the Lords present. 

The dessert for Kenyon, at least for the better part of two decades, is their NCAC schedule. They play a Reifeis-less Wabash on February 16th and then leave the conference on read until they go on a five match conference run between March 30th and April 14: Ohio Wesleyan, Denison, Wooster, Oberlin, and Allegheny. OWU, Wooster, and Allegheny don’t have non-zero chances against Kenyon but their chances are well acquainted with idea of zero chance. Oberlin has a greater chance than OWU, Wooster, and Allegheny, but the closing gap between Oberlin and the top of the conference that had been ever-shrinking, seems to be reasserting itself. Denison has the best chance to usurp Kenyon’s NCAC throne, but as we all saw with last year’s Big Red Hype Train – we have to see it before we believe it. 

The Kenyon x Carnegie Mellon match at the end of the regular season has become a Central x Atlantic South treat that seems to kick us all into postseason high gear. For our analogy, this match serves as either a post dinner coffee/drinks before going out (to the post season) or as a palate cleanser that prepares you for the big meal that is conferences. It’s a relatively harmless match for Kenyon because they don’t have any Pool C aspirations, and it gives them a great opportunity to prepare themselves for the NCAA tournament after a month of NCAC dual-matches. This match generally has Individual implications but they’re tempered to the extent that the committee weights out of conference wins…of course this assumes that the committee does something other than throwing darts haphazardly at the top singles players in their respective regions in the selection process. 

The conference tournament is “tHe mOSt ImPortAnT PaRt Of ThE SeaSoN”… in name only. Of course it gives Kenyon their ticket to the Dance, but as stated above, the NCAC is Kenyons until future notice – and this is one of those Pool A tickets we pencil in…early. Kenyon will likely end up as a 2 or 3 seed in an NCAA Regional – my crystal ball (and history) have me leaning towards sending the Lords back to St. Louis or up to Minnesota to join Chicago and GAC.

I miss the nicknames of the Lords of Old, so a call to the Mike Robertses and Pete Dakiches of this new Kenyon team to bring back the energy and excitement that surrounded the #BenchMob. We want nicknames (just not in your twitter score updates S/O RegionalNEC). 

-newD3central